Affiliates in Argentina call for the suspension of massive layoffs in the state sector
Apr 8, 2024
In response to measures considered ultraliberal by President Javier Milei, which resulted in the dismissal of approximately 15,000 Argentine public sector workers, unions affiliated to Public Services International (PSI) have announced both protest and legal actions.
The Unión del Personal Civil de la Nación (UPCN), through its General Secretary, Andrés Rodríguez, filed on Thursday, April 4, at the National Labor Court of First Instance No. 57, Lavalle 1268, a collective injunction action (without prejudice to the hundreds of individual legal actions that are underway) to order the employer State to stop the mass dismissal of national public workers. The UPCN also plans to take its claim to the International Labor Organization (ILO).
In addition to this, in March the CGT's Front of State Unions, of which the PSI affiliates (AEIFP, APES, APJAE, APL, APSEE, FATUN, SGBATOS, SUPARA, UEJN and UPCN) are members, met again with the purpose of generating actions in the face of a new political, economic and social scenario that systematically attacks the existence of the State itself and its workers.
"This new government manifestly proposes to destroy the State through privatizations, attacking the workers with wage cuts and freezing in addition to inflation, and to this is added a huge number of layoffs in different sectors. They want to privatize State enterprises in sectors that are obviously more profitable and sectors that have to do with the international panorama and situation, for example, in the sector linked to energy, oil, lithium, gas, etc. In view of this, the trade union organizations have had different strategies, although we coincide in many activities. That is why we are going to request, through the injunction we have recently filed to prevent the dismissals, which are unconstitutional and against all collective bargaining agreements, international support", said Federico Dávila, PSI's first vice-president.
Dávila also said that this week there will be a meeting of the CGT executive committee where the general plan of action will be deepened. In addition to this, a large mobilization is being planned for May 1st and close to that date a new general strike will possibly be announced.