José Rigane
In dialog with the news website “El Retrato …”, the General Secretary of the Luz y Fuerza de Mar del Plata trade union, José Rigane, stated that “the labor flexibilization of workers does not mean anything other than the removal of workers’ rights on the one hand, and on the other, securing profits for companies.”
“Our trade union organization is in a situation which is not different from that of the rest of the workers’ movement and trade union organizations in particular,” said the unionist who also remarked that they are under a “hard attack and stigmatization” which comes from the government.
In this regard, he explained that “the attack is open and at times subliminal” and that they talk about “bad behavior of the workers’ movement, trying to make everyone believe that such thing exists in each and every union and its leaders.”
Rigane pointed out that the reform the government wants to apply is called “flexicurity”, and stressed that it is clear for workers that “it is not precisely their rights and claims that originate the crisis in Argentina “.
“In any case, the country’s crisis is due to lack of investment and it is also the consequence of not implementing a productive model that centers development in the industry and in assembly plants,” said Rigane.
He also noted that “no one can believe that with a 30% of poverty, a 45% of job precarization, unemployment and a minimum wage that does not even cover 50% of the basic food basket value, workers’ right are the reason for the crisis in Argentina,” and remarked that “in fact it is absolutely the opposite of that.”
The union leader stresses that since the Argentine government “wants to attract foreign investments, they are trying to lower labor costs and at the same time trying to guarantee the high returns for these economic groups.”
