Posadas, the missionary capital, has focused national attention in recent hours. Roadblocks, burning tires, camps, street marches, banging of pots and pans and the occupation of the Legislature mark the discontent of thousands of workers over their salaries. These are the teaching and health unions, which in recent years have been involved in various conflicts due to the adjustment of the Frente Renovador de la Concordia and Governor Hugo Passalaqua.
In the last few hours, a police mutiny has taken place that includes the seizure of the Radio Command. They demand salaries. There are retired and active personnel. The court has ordered the eviction but it is not clear how they will implement it.
What began as a protest in the political center spread to other cities in the province, with assemblies in squares and closures of nearby routes.
Demands
Leandro Sánchez, general secretary of UTEM and deputy of the Autonomous CTA of Misiones, says that “the government has been telling us that the salary recomposition could be between 12 and 20 percent. That is what they are offering to different sectors and the truth is that people need much more. A teacher in Misiones earns 230 thousand pesos, who has just started, and with that life has become unviable. Many secondary or primary school teachers who have to visit several schools. Yesterday a colleague told me that we are working… to work. In other words, we work to keep the job with whatever we earn. Just pay for service, eat less and less and sustain work. We need a one hundred percent increase.”
The teaching claim takes several days. The teachers demanded an increase in their poverty salaries and the government’s “negotiating table” has made no progress.
This Thursday night showed the anger. A group of self-convened teachers moved towards the Legislature and after overcoming the fences entered the building. They had to suspend the current session.
Teachers took over the legislature demanding a salary increase and the deputies had to escape through the back door.#Argentina #Mercy pic.twitter.com/8GUOuIlxxw
— 𝙈𝙖𝙧𝙞𝙤 𝙈𝙤𝙧𝙖𝙮 (@Mario_Moray) May 17, 2024
Gómez says that “the day before yesterday a gendarme threatened to shoot with the shotgun. He said “what I don’t want is to take out my shotgun and shoot a teacher.” Fortunately, the temperance of our companions and the militant attitude for so long meant that the threats did not escalate. It all came down to a ridiculous threat, a bravado. “Only the day of the university professor, which remembers the struggle of the university professors and the death of Juan José Cabral in the Corrientes of ’69, exactly that day they threaten us.”
“WHAT I DON’T WANT IS TO TAKE MY SHOTGUN AND SHOOT AT A TEACHER…”
GDA REPUDIATES THE THREAT OF GENDARING TEACHERS IN MISSIONS DURING A PROTEST pic.twitter.com/33WJYT6mhm
— Formosa Self-convened Teachers Guild (@prensagda) May 16, 2024
In the last hours, the union mobilized to National Route 14, which runs through all of Mesopotamia to Buenos Aires. Days before there were cuts in Jardín América and today actions were added in Guaraní, Aristóbulo del Valle and San Vicente, where after an assembly the teachers cut national route 14 at kilometer 1251. Traffic can pass every two hours.
The teaching leader insists that “we want 100% and any solidarity, the truth is that we could use photos, audios, communications, whatever. The police are also stationed, but we do not have political unity with them. And also Health, yes, we are in the same situation.”
In the case of health personnel, the claim is also mainly salary. “We are demanding a salary recomposition in accordance with the situation we are experiencing, we have a dialogue table in which we want to recover our purchasing power,” they told local media. They demand a 100% increase against the official offer of around 20%. The measures include strikes guaranteeing minimum guard in hospitals and health centers.
⭕ The social conflict worsens due to salary claims in Misiones
🔴 The police started a protest and took up quarters at the Radioelectric Command in Posadas. They demand a 100% increase in their salaries.
⚠️ Gendarmerie received the eviction order and those involved were… pic.twitter.com/vGVhh0mxCl
— Filo.news (@filonewsOK) May 17, 2024
Scenes of a deepening crisis
The claims of teachers and health personnel are not new. In recent years, in a self-convened manner, they have shocked the province again and again. But the truth is that the social crisis deepens year after year. In Misiones, poverty reaches 50% and public salaries are among the lowest in the country: 250 thousand pesos for many teachers, nurses and state employees. Added to this is the Milei blender plan, which has its provincial chapters. It is clear that the governors of Cambiemos, the PJ or the provincial parties, as in this case, are partners in this adjustment.
But it is also a wake-up call because it shows that while in the metropolitan area there are specific and often contained demands, in some provinces fatigue can lead to outbreaks that neither the government parties nor the union bureaucracies can contain. Police quartering is an extra spice. Those in charge of repressing the protests and exercising social control have rioted and in some cases even “solidarized” with the other protests. The fact implies a problem for a State that, as Patricia Bullrich proclaims, wants to impose adjustment with repression.
We must support the demand of teachers, health personnel and state missionaries, demanding a provincial strike from all unions and centers, as well as support for all their fighting measures. Another reason to organize resistance against the adjustment and the Bases Law.
Source: www.laizquierdadiario.com
