Argentine oil unions on Tuesday stopped activity at ports exporting grains and related products, as well as grinding plants in the country.
The move came in rejection of the economic deregulation agenda pushed by President Javier Milei.
The measure, announced by the Workers’ Federation of the Oleaginous Industrial Complex, the industry reporting the highest income in foreign currency in Argentina, will be “indefinite” starting at midnight on Wednesday, said to AFP their leader, Daniel Yofra.
“The main reason is the labour reform pushed by the government, which it calls modernisation,” explained the union leader.
The strike against the “Ley de Bases” reform promises to halt the activity of the industries located outside Rosario, Santa Fe, which are the third biggest agro-exporing port complex.
The Senate will discuss on Wednesday an abridged version of Milei’s reform bill, who this week marks his first semester in power without having achieved the approval of laws in Congress, where his party, La Libertad Avanza, is a minority.
If senators approve the statute, which in April was given the green light by the Chamber of Deputies, the package with over 200 articles will go back to the Lower House for its final approval.
The bill delegates the Parliament’s powers to the Executive Branch, including a controversial incentive regime for big investment and subjects some ten state companies for privatisation, among other measures.
A fiscal reform including the so-called income tax on salaries and pensions at scales involving an increased base is also being debated.
Yofra highlighted that for workers the reinstatement of this tax “means a pay cut”.
For the leader of the oleaginous industry workers, “there is no article in the Bases Law benefitting workers”.
In addition to the strike, the Federation called a demonstration on Wednesday opposite Congress in Buenos Aires alongside the main workers’ associations in the country, social organisations, left-wing parties and members of civil society.
The strike is taking place in a context of tension between the agro-exporting sector and Milei’s government over the dollar exchange rate, which companies consider low and unattractive to liquidate foreign currency from their sales abroad.
– TIMES/AFP
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