The business chamber stated that the maritime unions “intend to impose inflexible conditions in wage claims well above inflation”. As a result, there was no agreement and port activity in the region continues to be paralyzed.

 

In a day of open negotiations, no progress was made to resolve the tugboat conflict that paralyzes port activity in the region.

 

In a statement issued by the Chamber of Tugboat Owners, the business sector stated that “the maritime unions are trying to impose inflexible conditions to demand wage increases well above inflation”.

 

It also pointed out that these unions “have received increases above inflation by almost 10% in the 2021 and 15% in the

and an additional 15% after the 2021 and 2022 bargaining agreement was closed, totaling more than 130% increase in the last year alone.

 

On the other hand, it was reported that the unions have left the reopening of the dialogue subject to the presence of the president of the CAR in a new meeting scheduled for tomorrow, Friday, at 9 am.

 

The communiqué

 

“In the midst of the general crisis that our country is going through, the maritime unions intend to impose inflexible conditions to demand wage increases well above inflation, which they also disguise with concepts that are alien to the labor practice of this industry.

 

The unions externalize their pretensions by paralyzing the port activity, which is precisely the one that feeds our country with foreign currency and provides the logistics for the supply of fuels, which today are concretely threatened. These unions have received increases above inflation by almost 10% in the 2021 and 15% in the

and an additional 15% after the 2021 and 2022 bargaining agreement was closed, totaling more than 130% increase in the last year alone. All this for workers who perform tasks less than 6 months a year, spend another six months of free pay and without providing any service whatsoever receiving such salaries. This is a privilege that no other Argentine worker has, neither doctors, teachers, policemen or any other public or private employee. The maritime worker receives his salary every month, updated by the CPI.

 

Within this framework, this year the new bargaining agreements for the period 2023-2024 are being negotiated, with the unions trying to impose the continuity of the monthly and automatic CPI to their bulky salaries, plus a capricious percentage, and the closed refusal to negotiate certain privileged labor conditions that take the Argentine cost to unsustainable values.

 

Thus, the negotiations -which are not such- take place in a context of force imposed by the unions that do not accept to dialogue, but only to impose. The State, which should fulfill its task of administering, mediating, conciliating positions and establishing procedures to avoid conflicts, as in other times, once again aligns itself with the Unions and their pressure systems that tend to paralyze activities and hinder waterways and foreign trade. The State, represented by the Ministry of Labor, far from conciliating positions, hardens them even more and leads the current situation accompanying the union pressures, just at the moment when the country needs foreign currency in this critical moment of our history. Thus, they paralyze our ports, leaving us at the mercy of the coercive union actions, contributing to the current situation by accompanying the union pressures coercive actions, contributing to the climate of chaos.

The Chamber of Tugboats is always willing to negotiate in a framework of equality, without having to bear unreasonable pressures or impositions, and the decisions of the business chamber are being taken in a framework of democracy and unanimity, so it will not admit attacks to certain companies and much less to people who are legitimate representatives of our industry, as the unions have been doing, protected by the authorities with the systematic attack on companies and their managers, choosing each week to which company to expose, attack, stop. The right to complain must have its limits in a country that is trying to stabilize its variables”.

MÁS NOTICIAS