Two weeks after it was launched, the Government’s decision to give the Truckers union intervention in controlling prices in supermarkets and logistics centers is no longer being carried out. The measure taken by President Alberto Fernández; the Minister of Economy, Sergio Massa, and the Secretary of Commerce, Matías Tombolini, did not satisfy any of the parties involved.
“All citizens can control prices”, They affirm from the union that Hugo and Pablo Moyano lead, but the operations seem to have lasted only a week. “Ten days have passed. There are no mechanisms, they are all on vacation. There are controls every time the Secretary of Commerce requests them,” warned a spokesman for Truckers to THE NATION.
“Truckers went out to accompany the Secretary of Commerce. What is serious? Bring prices down. You have people from the Secretariat and from the accompanying company. There is no secret. Truckers did not hide anything. The other unions also go out to control prices. There are 17 organizations that are helping,” added the source.
Meanwhile, the president of the Argentine Industrial Union (UIA), Daniel Funes de Rioja, ruled out that control operations are being carried out in the distribution centers. “In the food and beverage industry they have not occurred,” he said in dialogue with THE NATION. And he added: “We consider that these tasks correspond to the State, as one of its non-delegable functions. Be the union that is”.
The Chamber of Commerce, without information
“We had an audience some time ago with Secretary Tombolini. in that meeting the possibility of this type of control operations was not mentioned of prices with the participation of unions and social movements”, he explained to THE NATION the president of the Argentine Chamber of Commerce, Mario Natalio Grinman.
Grinman ruled out that there are “speculative hoarding maneuvers” (Pablo Moyano’s main argument for intervening the gondolas). “Eventual shortages are generated simply by a demand on the part of consumers, which cannot be satisfied by the volumes of supply supplied by the supplying companies,” added Grinman.
The truth is that the Fair Prices program launched by Massa to regulate more than 1,400 products would have achieved a slight slowdown in inflation at least during the first month, but the decision for truckers to take charge of the controls aroused tensions in sectors production key. It even led to a criminal complaint for “intimidation and pressure,” according to the leader of the Civic Coalition, Elisa Carrió, who filed the lawsuit.
When trying to defend this group -which on several occasions was branded parastatal-, Pablo Moyano maintained: “We are the ones who mobilize tons of food daily and we can control the departure of the trucks from the distribution centers. We have to collaborate so that speculation does not occurthat they do not hide the merchandise ”.
The argument that the Government and Truckers raised about the implementation of this decision is an alleged meeting that would have taken place almost a month ago, together with supermarkets. Before the consultation of THE NATION, the Association of United Supermarkets (ASU), which brings together companies, He ruled it out “outright.”
The Secretary of Industry and Productive Development, Jose Ignacio de Mendiguren, came out in defense of Massa and Tombolini. He assured that there is no “control”, but a “price survey” in the shops. “The most important thing is whether or not the agreements are fulfilled, because we are dealing with the defense of real wages,” he said in an interview with radio station La 990.
The agreement to which De Mendiguren refers is with the municipalities, whose participation was officially established. The inspectors of the municipalities carry out an audit of prices and stock and keep a percentage of the amount of the sanctions: 30%. Nevertheless, no official agreement mentions Truckers or another union or social movement.
Before the consultation of THE NATION, The government admitted that this form of control does not have a specific legal framework, was not included in the written and voluntary agreements signed with the companies, nor was it formally resolved with the unions. It happened by word of mouth and without an institutional channel.
Price control is a mechanism that the Government was able to implement on more than one occasion, but it was never able to stop inflation. In 2021, With the announcement of the “frozen prices”, the Ministry of Economy urged the Buenos Aires mayors to intervene in the gondolas to make sure there were no stock-outs or overpriced increases. At that time, the Secretary of Commerce was in charge of Roberto Feletti and, despite attempts, annual inflation was 50.9%. As now, the measure became a source of tension with the business sector and domestic trade.
Only one social organization continues to collect prices
The popular movement “La Dignidad” is the only group that seems to continue with the inspections. Commanded by Rafael Klejzer, They began a tour of supermarkets last Monday in order to register “compliant” and “non-compliant” businesses. Likewise, they pointed out the areas with the highest and lowest shortages during the last four days and disseminated their statistics on social networks.
“We finished the first week of the Price control of the Fair Prices program. We keep an eye on food producing companies”pointed out Klejzer in this regard.