Argentina: metalworking supervisors on state of alert

The union, led by Luis García Ortiz, has issued a press release denouncing the employers’ rejection of union demands for a pay rise and changes to the job classification system in both the manufacturing and administration sectors of the industry. The union accuses the employers of failing to respect the agreement’s clauses on maintaining job categories under review in order to take account of new production methods and technologies. ASIMRA accuses employers of trying ¨to make us believe that Argentinean industry operates like a village smithy”.

The union held a rally at the offices of the employer’s federation on Monday 1 July as employers were holding a meeting at the Ministry of Labour. Roberto Martín Navarro, ASIMRA Secretary, said that the union wants a review of the job classification system. He explained that the union went to the negotiating table with the aim of “updating basic aspects of the agreement. When they won’t agree to what we are asking for, they always start talking about paying us one-off lump sums. We requested changes to the job classification system set out in the collective agreement, in order to bring it up to date with new technologies and production methods”.

Navarro added that the categories in the current job classification table, “were established in 1975 and 1994. We think that things have changed since then, especially the role of supervisors, and we hope that the employers will review the situation to bring them up to date with the current situation”.

He said the union has put its members on a state of alert and called for the government to mediate in order to achieve an agreement.

IndustriALL has communicated its solidarity to our colleagues in ASIMRA in the union’s fight for improvements in the conditions of its members.