[Marxism] Underground Changes: Argentine Subway Workers Fight for a New Union

[Fred Fuentes <fred.fuentes@xxxxxxxxx>]

 Underground Changes: Argentine Subway Workers Fight for a New Union    
Written by Zula Lucero
Thursday, 19 February 2009

ImageTranslated by Mat Goldín and April Howard

More than 8 years ago delegates of the internal commission of subways
in Buenos Aires began a fight that resulted in improvements in working
conditions: ten years without personnel dismissal, a six hour work
day, the creation of new working places and the incorporation of
workers from external companies who were also providing services in
the subways. These campaigns, which were always supported by the
majority of the workers, resulted in a clash with the management of
Union Tranviario Automotor (UTA), to which the the workers belong.
This turned into threats, persecution and physical aggression toward
the delegates of the subway workers.

These confrontations gave subway workers the idea of creating their
own union. In August, the delegates of the subway presented a request
of inscription in the Ministry of Labor, for which the UTA management
tried all the means to expel them from the union. Finally, the General
Secretary of UTA, Roberto Fernandez, was forced to make a modification
in the union statute that made it possible to organize elections
modifying the method of voting. At that time, the subway delegates
denounced the idea, stating that if these elections were to take
place, they would be fraudulent, because the voter list was created by
the union and not by the subway branch, breaking a method of voting
used for more than 14 years. The election did not guarantee a
corresponding number of representatives, according to the minimum
proportion of workers, which means that it reduced the number of
delegates and limited the representation of the delegates among other
things.

On December 12, the chosen day  for the elections organized by the
UTA's executive management, the workers of the subway held assemblies
in their work places, repudiating the elections. At this time,
Taborda, a delegate said: "The Company made an agreement with the
bureaucracy to impose on us delegates who correspond to their
interests, and with the complicity of the Ministry of Labor." One week
before, the delegates presented a challenging to the elections in the
Department of Work, requesting a quick reply, but they did not receive
any response.

In the elections organized by the union bureaucracy, only 8% of 2.500
registered workers voted. In this voting the delegates lost formal
representation, so they then put all their energy toward creating a
new union. The first step was holding a plebiscite for all the subway
workers in order to find out if they were in favor. The proposal
sought to create the new union by seeking protection through Law N°
23.551 of Union Associations, the recent mandate from the Supreme
Court of Justice of the Nation and of the Agreement N° 98 of the
International Labor Organization (ILO), about the rights of unions and
collective negotiation, which guarantees workers the right to create
their own union organizations.

This was strongly rejected by the UTA and Hugo Moyano, General
Secretary of the General Federation of the Work (CGT), a big ally of
the national government of Cristina Krichner.

February 5, was the day chosen for the beginning of the plebescite.
While it was taking place, a group of thugs from the UTA arrived at
the Congreso de Tucuman station and attacked the people there. This
occurred in full view of the mass media, members of social, human
rights, and political organizations and passengers. In repudiation of
this new act of violence, the workers decided to strike, which caused
several hours of the total interruption of the subway service. The
next day, Roberto Fernandez, president of UTA said: "Is important to
clarify that those self-named delegates do not have union rights,
because in the last elections they did not even appear as candidates…
those who are supporting the plebiscite are stuck in an ideology of
permanent revolution. The only people that they are hurting are
passengers and the workers, who don't want to play their game."

Meanwhile the referendum continued, finishing on February 12 at 7 PM.
More than 70% of the registered workers voted in the plebiscite, and
98,8% declared themselves in favor of creating a new union. All polls
were monitored by public notaries, as well as being observed by
social, political and human rights activists.

However, this is only a first step in the fight for the creation of a
new union. Still needed is the union's inscription and legal status,
which must be granted and approved by the Ministry of Labor, which has
not supported the idea. When discussing the issue, Minister of Labor,
Carlos Tomada, said that the creation of the new union "is not
provided for in the union laws… From the point view of legal
efficiency, it doesn't have a chance of success."

The subway workers' fight for their own union, is n important
beginning, in order that other workers who are tied to unions that do
not answer to their demands, can break with union bureaucracy, which
historically has been allied with political and economic powers of the
moment at the cost of the needs of the hard-working class. Hopefully
this struggle marks the beginning of the end of the power of the 'CGT
fat cats.'
-- 
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