MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Moyano tells the government: no strikes planned, so far…but things could change

The head of organized letter sent a letter to President Cristina Fernandez and is waiting for the reply

The head of Argentina’s organized labour CGT umbrella unions’ boss Hugo Moyano broke his silence to state his relationship with the Argentine government is “suspended” but dismissed for the time being, the possibility of staging a national strike.

Moyano also revealed he had sent a letter to President Cristina Fernandez with a set of claims and was “waiting for the reply”.

“So far no: no strike, no demonstrations, at this point there is no motive, but this does not mean that if things don’t work…things could change”, said the unions’ leader during an interview on Thursday with a cable news network.

Regarding the upcoming wage talks, the truck drivers’ union leader warned that “if they set limits and percentages, free wage talks are over.” He emphasized that a recent agreement reached with the farm hands union for a 35% salary increase in 2012, was not subscribed by the government.

“If this is the case let the government decree the percentage and let’s put an end to the wage discussions circus”

“I haven’t spoken to any Government official in the last two months” Moyano explained during an interview with a cable news network. “This isn’t ill-treatment towards Moyano, but to all workers” cautioned the union leader.

Moyano also blasted the Argentine government’s “fine-tuning” policies, which include massive subsidy cuts. “Every time I hear such a term as fine tuning, I remember what former president Carlos Menem did during the nineties, including the so-called labour market de-regulation”

Hugo Moyano is scheduled to hold a lunch with fellow union leaders on Friday to analyze 2012’s wage talks, after the Government’s warning that negotiations should respect each sector’s profitability.

Among those participating are the taxi drivers’ union leader Omar Viviani; newspaper salesmen union leader Omar Plaini; dockyard workers union leader Juan Carlos Schmid; bakers union leader Abel Frutos and national lawmaker Facundo Moyano.

“It will be a lunch to discuss current issues, wage talks included, and it will be open to the media” a CGT source added.

This will be the first CGT leaders’ meeting since President Cristina Fernández said on Wednesday that wage talks will have to take into account the varying profitability levels of each sector and announced the creation of a committee which will closely follow collective bargain.

Within an economic framework that appears more complex than previous years, the Argentine government intends to keep wage talks around 18%, while Moyano and fellow union leaders assure that wage hike can not stand below 25%.

“We will follow the supermarket index, the food prices index”, said Moyano in reference to the private sector inflation estimates, which are well above the official index from the national stats office, Indec with 9.5% for the 12 months of 2011.

Regarding his future as head of the umbrella trade unions CGT, since he faces elections next June, Moyano said he will continue “unless there’s a coup”.

“We’ll see that when the moment comes. Currently I’m a bit tired, but I will continue until June unless there’s a coup”, and asked “who has the authority to decide I’m not honouring what the workers are claiming for, and who else can do it better than me?”.

On Wednesday President Cristina Fernandez was also emphatic about her role and achievements. “I can tolerate criticism, everybody has the right to criticize, but there is no government since the time of (General Juan Domingo) Peron that has effectively implemented more distribution and social justice among Argentine workers than those of Kirchner”.