MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Relation of organized labour with Argentine government, “suspended, not broken”

Moyano says government shouldn’t meddle in unions business

Argentina’s CGT Labour Confederation leader Hugo Moyano stated on Thursday that, “our relationship with the Government is not broken, just suspended as the President (Cristina Fernandez) wishes,” during a press meeting with international news correspondents.

“The communication with the president is not broken; it is suspended as she wishes. We have no intention to call for a general workers strike, but if conditions worsen, the workers will push towards a decision,” Moyano remarked.

Moyano regretted Cristina Fernández decision to keep unionists out of her administration’s top posts. “We would have liked it to have more union members in her government, but she didn’t take this into consideration,” he protested.

“We don’t meddle in government business, so the government shouldn’t meddle in union business” Moyano stressed. “What distances the administration from the worker’s movement is their policies,” the leader insisted.

“There are a lot of Peronists in this government, we can’t measure the level of Peronism within, but the amount of disloyalty to Perón ideas” Moyano stated.

Moyano's relationship with President Cristina Fernandez was harmonious until her husband and predecessor as president, Nestor Kirchner, died late last year, robbing the union boss of his main government ally.

Tensions between Cristina Fernandez and Moyano have become ever more obvious this year. In veiled references to the burly trucker, the Argentine president has condemned union “extortion” and “blackmail” in pay talks.
 “We've been very clear,” Moyano said. “A legitimate demand is not extortion.”

Last week, Moyano stepped down as Buenos Aires province branch leader of the Peronist party because it is an “empty shell, void of Peronism,” he said in front of tens of thousands celebrating Teamsters Day.

Earlier in the week the CGT secretary for Human Rights Julio Piumato had admitted that dialogue between the CGT and the national government “is not going through its finest moment” and insisted that “there’s a need to sit down and discuss matters.”

“The dialogue between the two groups is not going through its finest moment. I hope that there’s a call for us to sit down and debate, if we are all conscious enough to want to deepen social justice” Piumato underlined.

The unionist added that “what’s going right now is very painful” adding that “I felt profoundly hurt, because I feel as though things should be going down a different route”.