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The fall into prison of an allied senator with more than 200,000 undeclared dollars on the triple border, the boycott of legislators from the Casa Rosada to the clean record project and the fact that it is now known that the head of the organization in charge of the collection of taxes. This is the epitome of an uncomfortable end of year agenda to JavierMileywho would be increasingly willing to turn towards pragmatism and abandon the anti-system profile that propelled him to the Presidency. This list could also include the new alliance with the union caste, which remains in force for now despite an escalation of sectoral conflicts that could alter the truce.
Luis Caputo ordered that salary increases be moderated in line with inflation projections. The Minister of Economy reinforced his position after a private meeting in the exclusive Duhau Palace with the most powerful businessmen in the country. Paolo Roccaof the Techint Group, resumed its request to “level the playing field” as part of its demand for a greater reduction in taxes, including those linked to labor costs.
The first corporate reaction of the businessmen after this meeting was to stand on the Salary Council with a proposal to increase the minimum, vital and mobile wage that was more moderate than Caputo himself imagined. The singing voice took her Daniel Funes from Riojaof the Argentine Industrial Union (UIA). The labor confederations demanded to raise it from $270,000 to $572,000 in December, while the UIA proposed raising it to $295,000, but only in March, to be carried out in four installments. There was no agreement and for the third time, the administration that worships freedom will determine the amount of the increase by decree. It means another blow to Julio Cordero, the Secretary of Labor who boasts of his loving and dialoguing spirit. “I don’t want the official to tell me that he loves me very much, I want him to resolve it,” a union leader became angry. If the meeting with businessmen and union members had not been virtual, it could have ended in a scandal. Alexandra Biasutiwho led the meeting on behalf of the Government, once again avoided face to face with the sectors. The Human Capital official asked for “the institutionality” of the Salary Council, a distorted committee, in which lately there is more imposition than dialogue and negotiation.
The union unrest was accentuated because just a few hours before the meeting of the Salary Council, the Secretary of Labor, by order of Caputo, had decided not to approve the quarterly joint payment of the Health union for the clinics and sanatoriums branch, considering that it puts the inflation target at risk. Health, whose reference is Hector Daerone of the heads of the CGT, agreed with the chambers of the sector an increase of 11.4 in three installments for the October-December period.
A similar situation is going on Hugo Moyano. The truck driver lowered his salary demand from 15% to 8.5% for one quarter and agreed to split an end-of-year bonus of $600,000 into easy installments. However, there was strong pressure from the Government on freight transport companies not to grant this increase. This is a key sector because any increase in this area impacts the prices of practically all products. Moyano began yesterday with assemblies in all branches and threatened a truckers’ strike for Christmas week. Labor then expedited the dictation of mandatory conciliation. The Moyano salary battle will resume in January.
Is the truce sealed by the Government and the CGT really at risk? Not for now, and perhaps more because of a calendar issue. However, an escalation of sectoral conflicts is anticipated. Truckers, health workers, state workers and aeronautical workers opened fire? The unions that work in Aerolíneas Argentinas returned to the fray this week for their joint position, but they also resumed the political battle: an influential leader circulated yesterday that Fabian Lombardoowner of Aerolíneas Argentinas, had traveled to Miami to spend the end of year holidays despite the request for austerity that was lowered from the Casa Rosada. The state company denied the version and stated that Lombardo is in the country. It was a counterattack of the dirty war: the state company had been the one that, in the middle of the conflict with the unions, showed evidence in September that Edgardo Llano had traveled on vacation to Spain along with his wife and four daughters in tourist class.
This tense back and forth between employees and employers, with the Government often in a passive role, frustrated the plans that Cordero had to close 2025. Last Wednesday, the Secretary of Labor had summoned the businessmen of the Group of Six and the leadership of the CGT to stage the tripartite dialogue and crown a December without major conflicts. Cordero even imagined for a moment inviting Sandra Pettovellothe minister who has the labor area under her orbit. The CGT finally stood up to the Government in rejection of the official interference in the joint negotiations and questioned, at least rhetorically, its social peace agreement in exchange for shielding the collection of the solidarity fee, not reforming the law on Trade Union Associations and maintain the fluidity of resources in their social works. There was a certain expectation for the meeting because the fine print of the regulations of article 242 of the Base Lawwhich refers to the locks as “just cause” for dismissal. The CGT distinguishes in the Secretary of Labor an ally to mitigate the scope of the regulations, which were approved five months ago in Congress, but which still have unspecified points, with gray areas open to dissimilar interpretations.
“We decided to bet on dialogue, but there is not even that. “They want to weaken us and impose a broader labor reform, like that of DNU 70,” warned a CGT official who doubts the intentions of Cordero and also of the businessmen. His skepticism increased after the frustrated negotiation in the Salary Council. The truth is that Milei had to resign 42 of the 58 articles contained in his original labor reform proposal that he sent to Congress. As part of its pact with the unions, it excluded the points that undermined the collection and representation of the unions, but it also avoided moving forward on costs and penalties. The most innovative structural change was the possibility of agreeing on a sectoral severance fund to replace compensation. Except for Uocra, which has had this model for years, there was no other union that has decided to abandon the traditional termination system that is in force in labor legislation. There was some poll with the Trade Union, the largest in the country, but Pettovello failed to convince the legendary Armando Cavalieri. There were also conversations with Luis Barrionuevothe gastronomic leader who keeps his bridges intact with the libertarian administration after his fleeting electoral alliance last year.
Barrionuevo’s shadow is cast in two unions in which the Government has a particular interest. One of them is the Union of Security Personnel of the Argentine Republic (Upsra)which brings together private security guards, exonerated police, patovicas, bravas and, to a lesser extent, personnel from the Federal Intelligence Agency (AFI). After years of intervention and lists clouded with suspicion, the Ministry of Labor enabled the elections and the historic Ángel García, ally of the gastronomic, retained his power this week.
The other case in which Barrionuevo influences, but which hides a plot of interests of unimaginable scope, is that of the Union of Rural Workers and Stevedores (Uatre)a union that manages $9 billion a month while its social work reached a $1.3 billion surplus. The fight for control of the Uatre and its social work is settled in Justice, but also in official offices. The Government detected a series of irregularities and appointed a new auditor in the medical provider of rural laborers. Marcelo Carlos Petroni He is now at the head of the institution. Petroni would respond to Eduardo “Lule” Menemright hand of Karina Milei, according to sources close to José Voytenco, the head of the Uatre who fears being ousted by Pablo Ansalonian opposition leader who is also a national deputy for La Libertad Avanza.
Cornered by a judicial complaint against him for alleged illicit enrichment, Voytenco opened the doors of the union and social work to businessmen linked to Newtown and he built bridges with the libertarian administration because he feels his power is threatened. Voytenco took away the funeral insurance service from the Néspola group and handed it over to El Surco, Jorge Giani and July Comparativealmost a son for the gastronomic boss. Comparada was president of Independiente and among his clients he has unions, although his big business is with football, thanks to the agreement he sealed years ago with the AFA during the times of Julio Grondona. La Uatre pays El Surco $400 million monthly for funeral insurance, according to sources from the rural entity. Comparada was until recently a partner of the Minister of Health, Mario Lugones. Until a few months ago, Lugones was president of the Sanatorio Güemes Foundation, a clinic whose shareholding includes the gastronomic union, that is, Barrionuevo, and Comparada. Now, Lule Menem joined that table, through Petroni, the intervener who appointed Lugones for the social work of rural residents. Uatre’s is a coveted box for the approaching electoral times.
