Railway services are paralyzed from the first minute of this Tuesday for a 24-hour strike by La Fraternidad train drivers led by Omar Maturano, that disregarded the mandatory conciliation dictated by the Government in the conflict over the payment of a bonus of 50 thousand pesos to retirees and pensioners and the elimination of the Income Tax raised by the General Union of Transport Workers Associations (Ugatt).
Instead, the transport of passengers in groups will work normally because the Unión Tranviarios Automotor (UTA), the union led by Roberto Fernández, reported that “the force measure announced for tomorrow, Tuesday the 8th, is temporarily suspended.”
The Ugatt issued a statement signed by its owner, Maturano, in which he ratified that “as of 00:00 on November 8, there is a 24-hour nationwide strike.”
In the note distributed at 9:50 p.m. with the title “Honoring our parents”, the entity said that “If we learned anything from our fathers and mothers, it is to have a say. The way we have to dignify their education and work culture is by taking care with our own efforts of what they did for our upbringing, our dear retirees and pensioners from all over the country.“.
“We confirm the direct action measure announced well in advance so that the corresponding measures are taken, and with sufficient sensitivity and responsibility that we transport workers have,” he added.
He also said that “if we forget where we come from, we will never know where we are going. Thank God and the Virgin, the transport, logistics and service workers were well educated. We defend our retirees!”
Among other unions, in addition to the machinists of La Fraternidad, there are the remiseros, truck drivers of Santa Fe, loading and unloading personnel and the waste collectors of Córdoba.
Likewise, the western section of the Sarmiento Railroad, led by Rubén “Pollo” Sobrero, joined the strike, saying that the measure was resolved in an assembly and that “it is a shame that many transport unions look the other way,” and asked that “once and for all they listen to our fellow retirees”.
For its part, the UTA, reported that “conversations have begun with the government in order to seek alternatives to arrive at urgent solutions, in the face of the claim for the recomposition of the assets of our retirees.”
For this reason, he added, “we agreed to establish a deadline for the presentation of the official guidelines that respond to the request made by the Ugatt.”
“We understand that the national authorities have understood the emergency and justice of our request, and we trust their commitment, so that in the coming days they can send us a proposal that guarantees the rights of our elders, and respects the dignity they deserve, after years of effort providing an essential service to the whole society”he claimed.
The Labor portfolio imposed Law 14,786 of compulsory conciliation before the call for the general strike of the relaunched Ugatt, which is headed by the national leader of the La Fraternidad Train Conductors Union, Omar Maturano, reported the labor portfolio.
The National Secretariat of the Ugatt, a parallel organization to the Argentine Confederation of Transport Workers (CATT) of Sergio Sasia, also a railway worker, had called and ratified the general strike the previous week in Tucumán.
Maturano condemned the application of Income Tax on travel expenses and overtime and holidays that “force them to work”, and argued that “the bidding in parities is not for more or less percentage but for the dignity of the workers”.
“Faced with the devastating vortex of inflation”, Ugatt had ratified the strike and demanded “for December the payment of a bonus of 50 thousand pesos for retirees and pensioners and the elimination of Earnings”, then held.
Maturano affirmed the need to “honor the parents”; He pointed out that “the only privileged ones are children and the elderly,” and assured that “active workers in the formal system contribute to social security so that the life of retirees and pensioners is dignified and enjoyable, a Peronist mandate that is not fulfilled “.
He added that the passive sector suffered from the serious pandemic from “confinement and the impossibility of seeing their loved ones and, today, they cannot make ends meet.”
He also confirmed that “salary is no earningwhich is the product of the profitability of capital, while the work is an intellectual or manual effort to produce products and/or services, so that before the change in the non-taxable minimum, Ugatt requires that overtime, travel expenses and vacations not be deducted” , the trade unionist had pointed out.
“The increases in the non-taxable minimum are and will be insufficient in the face of the inflationary escalation that detonates the pockets of the working people. It is not possible to subject the industry and its employees to not performing tasks because it is not profitable for them,” he pointed out.
