The Argentinian State Workers Association (ATE) warned today of “imminent” massive layoffs in the public administration and asked trade unions to evaluate “bringing forward the call for a new national strike”, which, in theory, was planned for April.
“In the presence of a ‘guideline for dismissals’ by the government, which would be put into practice on March 26, we state workers have to reinforce our plan of struggle”, wrote Rodolfo Aguiar, ATE’s General Secretary, on his X account.
He was referring to a document published yesterday by El Destape, which was allegedly a guideline for massive layoffs of state workers that would begin next week.
The text, written by Chief of Staff Nicolás Posse’s office, has been sent by Whatsapp to departments and secretariats’ authorities as an outline to dismiss state workers.
“We have decided to call for a new meeting of our National Council, with the presence of representatives from Buenos Aires City and the 23 provinces. We are talking about over 70,000 contract that expire on March 31”, said Aguiar.
In the frame of this meeting, which will be held on March 21 at 27 de Junio Hotel, located at 1469 Defensa St, union representatives will define “new actions to avoid a scenario of massive layoffs at the end of the month”.
“Things are speeding up and we can’t wait until April for a new general strike. Rights are being trampled on, employment is plummeting, and workers and pensioners’ income is destroyed. Trade unions should consider bringing forward their call for a new national strike”, demanded Aguiar to the General Confederation of Labor and the two Argentine Workers’ Central Unions, which are planning a strike for the month of April.
According to the guideline published yesterday, workers most affected by the massive layoffs will be those under “Article 9”, whose contracts are renewed annually and automatically.
According to ATE’s records, 65,000 “Article 9” contracts expire on March 31 and then 6,000 more, known as “1,109”.
Meanwhile, the resignation of Armando Guibert, Secretary of State Transformation and Public Function, was made public. Guibert was in charge of renegotiating collective bargaining agreements with state workers’ unions and putting into practice massive layoffs in the public administration.
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Even though Guibert said his resignation was due to “strictly personal reasons”, off-the-record comments suggested that the decision was related to the 48% raise in the salaries of President Javier Milei and his ministers that the President signed himself in a decree. When news of the raise made headlines nationwide, the decree was repealed. Apparently, Guibert could have participated in that wage negotiation.