“At Explora SA, from Puerto San Martínfour workers were fired for false reasons. The employer’s decision is a retaliation for the withholding of tasks carried out by all workers to complain about the non-payment of the first installment of the extraordinary bonus.” In the plant located in the agro-export heart of the San Lorenzo area, the workers responded to the layoffs with strikes and pickets and the national government militarized access to the plant with the Prefecture. But faced with the announcement of the national strike by the Federation and the SOEA, the government dictated a mandatory conciliation with the workers at their jobs and they returned at night.
Oil producers announce that they could… by La Izquierda Diario
At the Dánica de Llavallol plant in Lomas de Zamorathe employers dismissed all of the workers at the end of the year, after putting pressure on them with voluntary retirements. Now it announces the reopening of the packaging sector with only 40 workers of the 95 operators and 150 workers in total that it had months ago. Governor Axel Kicillof accepted the employers’ blackmail and through his Ministry of Labor endorsed the layoffs and agreed to pay part of the salary of those who return to work. But a sector of the workers, including dismissed delegates of the internal commission, criticize the agreement because it is made with the majority of the dismissed workers and express their desire to be reinstated and return to work at Danica.
At the Vicentín and Renopack plants in San Lorenzo, workers went on strike to demand payment of the agreed year-end bonus and the national government issued a mandatory conciliation that is soon to expire. Vicentin also speculates on the outcome of the negotiation process with creditors, which is closely followed by Justice. At the end of 2024, the company announced that the investment group Cima acquired the debt that the agro-exporter had with international banks for about US$447 million, but that agreement must be approved by the Supreme Court of Justice of Santa Fe.
The statement is signed jointly by the Oil Federation and the San Lorenzo oil union. There they announce that if these attacks continue they will call for a national strike and denounce that there are also “longer conflicts like the one that
“It has been developing in Bahía Blanca with Viterra – today owned by Bunge – in which they systematically try to ignore labor rights.”
The employers and the government move against the workers. Join forces and face the attacks
The year began with attacks and also with workers’ resistance. To the conflicts in Aceiteros we must add the situation in Acindar in the province of Santa Fe. On January 13, the employers suspended the entire wire drawing sector without pay for 16 days as a disciplinary measure against those who resist the implementation of new work methods that imply a dismissal from the workforce. The response was forceful: faced with a massive and forceful strike at the entire ArcelorMittal Acindar Villa Constitución plant, the employers’ association had to back down with the sanctions and resume sectoral negotiations.
Employers and the government seek to reduce costs, modify agreements and attack labor rights. During the strike in Explora – initiated in response to the discriminatory dismissal of workers for complaining – the government sent the Naval Prefecture to try to prevent the workers’ claim, militarizing access to the Puerto San Martín plant. It is, in fact, the actions of the Unified Productive Security Command, a repressive force created by the government in September with the objective of preventing workers’ demands in oil companies, cereal companies, mining companies and those sectors that the government considers strategic.
The Buenos Aires senator from LLA and promoter of the anti-blockade protocol María Florencia Arrieto came out in defense of the employers and threatened the workers and the union: “if you block again, you will be in trouble. If you want my references, call Moyano and Acuña. Blocking is a crime and Vicentín needs the Supreme Court of Santa Fe to approve the agreement and be able to work.” At the intersection, union leaders and representatives came out, among them Octavio Crivaro of the PTS in the Left Front.
Arietto: only someone as upstart, opportunistic and lacking in principles and dignity as you can be a lawyer for these jets. The workers are the only ones who kept that company open. They just want to work. You and your owners just want to get on with the job. https://t.co/rc4NHNmraj
— Octavio Crivaro (@OctavioCrivaro) January 25, 2025
But the announcement of the national oil strike showed the power of the workers’ force: the same government that sent the repressive forces had to dictate a mandatory conciliation that temporarily reinstates the dismissed workers. It was also with the enormous 7-day strike in September that the oil producers bent the arm of the agro-export employers. And it was also with the strike that the metallurgists of Villa Constitución made the Acindar employers retreat.
In the face of attacks there is resistance. Along with the metallurgical and oil workers there are also the workers of the Bonaparte Hospital, of the Sites of Memory, who resist the layoffs at Shell and Pilkington. In Puerto San Martín, Serenos de Buque workers yesterday staged a claim against the new navigation regime of the Milei government, which puts at risk the jobs of 70 workers in the region and nearly 800 throughout the country.
We must strengthen each struggle, uniting and coordinating each fight, seeking the support of the population, of the students who took to the streets last year, of the women and diversity movement today attacked by the Milei right and Trumpism. From the PTS in the Left Front we were and will be in every struggle and resistance promoting this perspective to impose on the CGT and the large unions to break the truce and confront the government’s plan.
Source: www.laizquierdadiario.com
