2023-10-03 17:20:55
With inflation that has already liquidated all wage increases through parity, and the new tariffs that the Fernández-Massa Government (Unión por la Patria – UP) announces at the request of the IMF, its “good news” does not calm our situation. We are far from the family basket ($385,000 according to the Internal Board of ATE INDEC). Retirees who earn the minimum will reach $124,000 with the bonus, but the bonus will be above the basic one of $87,000. The same thing happens with the $30,000 this month and next for national private and state funds, which, in reality, are “vouchers” to be deducted from the joint agreements. Miserable salaries that increase business profits.
By PSTU-Argentina
Now he is doubling down with his announcements on the Income Tax, raising the floor of this tax and sending a project to Congress to eliminate the fourth category. This would completely exempt all employees in a dependency relationship from the tax. However, this measure benefits only a small portion of workers, compared to the millions whose income does not exceed the poverty line.
The Labor Reform that is coming
Meanwhile, the employers advance with everything. It is not enough for them with the flexible clauses of the Collective Bargaining Agreements, such as the oil agreement in Vaca Muerta or the Toyota agreement. Nor massive fixed-term contracts for regular tasks. Or the exemption of contributions and the salary subsidy for one (or two years, if they are young) for new personnel.
They are going for revenge to promote “comprehensive” Pension and Labor Reforms, with private retirement and a Labor Termination Fund – as in construction – instead of compensation for layoffs.
Reforms that did not prosper due to the December 2017 protests. As Macri admitted, that street confrontation that thousands of workers carried out was the beginning of the end of his Government.
To prevent this from happening again, they have changed the discourse. They say that “you cannot go against an acquired right.” And then they propose to register millions of “informal” workers but without the rights of the Labor Contract Law. As in fact already happens, for example, with the “popular economy” that Grabois (UP) and the Church advocate.
“We must look ahead for new workers and there is a lot of room to do so because formal employment rates in Argentina are low,” encourages Daniel Funes de Rioja, president of the Argentine Industrial Union (UIA) and the Coordinator of the Industries of
Food Products (COPAL). They try to further fragment the working class, in order to weaken us and increase our super-exploitation.
To align with this, the Government, through the Peronist Massa and the Minister of Labor Kelly Olmos, have announced that they will present a law to regularize the workers of applications such as PedidosYa. How? Precisely allowing companies to choose to recognize them as workers in a dependency relationship, with all the corresponding labor rights, or… Continue considering them as self-employed! In this way they are given free rein to continue making hundreds of thousands of workers precarious who do not enjoy rights such as social security, paid vacations, etc.
Organize for decent work
We workers cannot accept crumbs. The only way to beat inflation is to go out and fight. Our salaries must cover the family basket, regardless of branch, category, seniority, etc. This is totally non-negotiable, we need to put an end to the divisions imposed on us by the employers and the joint organizations and fight with a common document that unifies the employed and the unemployed.
Of course this also means fighting for jobs and better conditions. We must put a stop to the Labor Reform that is underway.
imposing. We must force the immediate transfer to the plant of all those hired, monotributistas and other traps that companies use to disguise labor relations.
Furthermore, we have to distribute working hours, without reducing salaries. In this way, unemployment can be combated, and work-related accidents and illnesses can be reduced. This would put an end to endless work days and overtime, while salaries would cover the needs of working families.
Working people need leaders who are up to these needs, not like those of the CGT who applaud Massa’s measures while we continue to lose wages in the face of inflation. From below we have to begin to organize ourselves in assemblies, committees, mobilize, organize pickets, to overcome these leaderships and build new and new leaders in the heat of the struggles that we need to wage.
Published in http://www.pstu.com.ar September 20, 2023
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