After the one-day strike of urban and suburban transport drivers on Tuesday, which defied the executive and the transport companies, the Ministry of Human Capital, through the Secretary of Labor, opted to issue the mandatory conciliation for 15 days in view of the announcement of the powerful MWU of a total stoppage of activities this Wednesday 7.

Like the Union de Transviarios Argentinos, the metallurgical workers are demanding wage improvements in stalled negotiations, with no agreement in sight, as well as labor stability and better working conditions.

According to the provisions, the governmental decision seeks ‘to promote a peaceful and legal solution to the conflict’ and ‘to guarantee social peace taking into account the public need to counteract eventual outbursts that could be caused by the actions of the parties’.

The measure of force called by the MWU is part of a plan of struggle in demand of ‘free paritarias’ (negotiations for labor contracts) and in rejection of the ‘anti-industrial’ policies of the government of Javier Milei. The National Congress of Metallurgical Delegates 2025, held in Mar del Plata last May 3, agreed to promote this union struggle plan, which includes six staggered strikes starting with a 24-hour strike. Bargaining negotiations are at a standstill because at the last hearing the employers offered a 2 percent increase for April and 1 percent for May and June, an offer which the MWU rejected outright as insufficient because it is below inflation, which continues to rise. The general secretary of the MWU, Abel Furlan, was very harsh with this offer and blamed the Government for the lack of agreement: ‘They tell us that in this context we have to give priority to work over losing wages’, but in the end, he affirmed: ‘We are left without wages and without work’.

abo/ro/mh