The Ministry of Labor granted this Monday trade union status to the Buenos Aires Press Union (Sipreba) to “group the workers in a relationship of dependency with employers of the press activity that provide tasks included in the statute of the professional journalist”, and excluded from that scope the Union of Press Workers of the city of Buenos Aires (UTPBA) .
Through resolution 21/2023 published this Monday in the Official Gazettethe Executive Branch ordered to grant Sipreba union legal status to “group workers in a dependency relationship with employers of the press activity that provide tasks included in the statute of professional journalist and in the statute of administrative employees of journalistic companies, with area of action throughout the territory that includes the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires”.
In the second article of the resolution, which bears the signature of the Minister of Labor, Kelly Olmos, the UTPBA is “excluded from the personal and territorial scope granted to the petitioner, which will remain as merely registered with respect to the scope granted to Sipreba.”
The text clarified that “The trade union status granted will not displace in the assigned group, the trade union status of the pre-existing trade union associations of the public sector.”
What did the union say?
The general secretary of Sipreba, Agustín Lecchi, considered that the measure represents a “historic achievement for the entire press union and it would not have been possible without the militancy of all our compañeros and compañeras during all these years.”
Speaking to TelamLecchi recalled that Sipreba “was formed after a referendum in November 2014; on June 7, 2015 it was founded and, at the end of that year, we obtained the simple union registration.”
“Since that moment we have been active in all the newsrooms and media companies as if we were the union with all the legal representation, because we thought so, and that is how we built the union, the internal commissions and the assemblies in each company,” he recalled.
Lecchi clarified that Nor would this progress have been possible “without the support of the entire labor movement, the CGT, the CTA, the Argentine Federation of Press Workers (Fatpren) and all the press unions in the country.”
“We militated in all the newsrooms and media companies as if we were the union with all the legal representation, because we thought so, and that’s how we built the union, the internal commissions and the assemblies in each company” (A) Agustín Lecchi
The official resolution
In the recitals, the resolution stated that on “October 31, 2022, a hearing was held at the headquarters of the National Directorate of Trade Union Associations (DNAS) so that the SIPREBA, the UTPBA, the Union of Press Workers (SITRAPREN) ), UPCN and ATE carry out the comparison of representativeness and mutual control that assists them”.
At that hearing, “The documentation provided by the UTPBA was not suitable to prove the entity’s contributing affiliation, since the accompanying receipts do not meet the formal requirements and the files do not allow establishing whether the affiliate had the status of ‘contributing affiliate’, as required Law No. 23,551, during the period subject to certification”.
“It is a historic achievement for the entire press union and it would not have been possible without the militancy of all our colleagues during all these years”Augustine Lecchi
In addition, on that occasion “it was proven that the UTPBA does not have Affiliate Registration Books or Affiliate Contribution Record signed, as expressly required by Article 24 and DNAS Resolution No. 55/93, these points being fully corroborated with the reports prepared by the Department of Union Administration of the DNAS”.
the UTPBAindicated the Ministry of Labor, “has not accredited contributing affiliates or their number, in accordance with the requirements of article 25 of Law No. 23,551.”
The text established that “based on the foregoing, only SIPREBA accredited contributory affiliation with respect to workers in a dependency relationship with employers of the press activity that provide tasks included in the statute of professional journalist and in the statute of administrative employees of journalistic companies.
The resolution also clarified that, although the UTPBA was excluded, “according to the provisions of Resolution No. 255 dated October 22, 2003 of the Ministry of Labor, there is no displacement regarding the recognition of the Trade Union Status of pre-existing entities in the field of the Sector Public SITRAPREN, UPCN and ATE”.
