ARGENTINA: Powerful union boss admits tension with Argentine president but rules out strike for now

Record ID: 446769

  • Title: ARGENTINA: Powerful union boss admits tension with Argentine president but rules out strike for now
  • Date: 23rd December 2011
  • Summary: BUENOS AIRES, ARGENTINA (FILE) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF CARS BEING BUILT VARIOUS OF CONSTRUCTION
  • Embargoed: 7th January 2012 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Argentina, Argentina
  • Country: Argentina
  • Topics: Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVAU6X9Y7OFS3JMLSBH5CGX7PCM
  • Story Text: Argentina's most powerful union boss acknowledged tensions in a long-standing alliance with the government on Thursday (December 22), although he ruled out the immediate possibility of a general strike as pay talks draw near.
    Trucker Hugo Moyano - sometimes compared to the U.S. union leader Jimmy Hoffa - heads Argentina's CGT labour federation and also controls the teamsters union that has the power to halt everything from grains exports to garbage collection.
    When asked if the CGT's dialogue with the government had collapsed, Moyano played down talk of a definitive split.
    "The relationship is not severed nor did it suffer some kind of problem. It's just that it's simply a different way to run the country that doesn't take some thing account. Before it did take these things into account and now they are not considered necessary," he said Thursday.
    Moyano's relationship with centre-left 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.
    Fernandez, who won a landslide re-election in October, has put her own stamp on the ruling Peronist party since Kirchner's death, giving more influence to young loyalists at the expense of more traditional allies including the unions.
    Tensions between Fernandez and Moyano have become ever more obvious this year, but Moyano dismissed the possibility of strike action, for now.
    "Union leaders don't decide on strikes. Maybe tomorrow or next week there will be a general strike. The conditions are created so these things happen. I hope it doesn't happen. We don't have any intention of something of that nature, but if things get worse I think the workers are going to push for a decision like that. I hope it doesn't happen. I fervently hope it doesn't happen. But the conditions are created for these kinds of situations," he said.
    Fernandez's ability to deal with the unions was among the biggest question mark after Kirchner died, and while Moyano has been rallying the troops, she has hit back.
    In veiled references to the burly trucker, she has condemned union "extortion" in pay talks.
    Moyano has declined to put a figure on his target for wage increases, but said his guide would continue to be "supermarket prices" rather than the low-balled inflation data published by the discredited INDEC national statistics agency.
    "Maybe when we insist on maintaining the buying power of our salary, we look at the inflation in the supermarket. That might bother some people, and I'm sorry if it does," he added.
    Annual inflation estimated privately at about 20 percent has been fuelling pay claims in Latin America's No. 3 economy since 2007, and wages for those who have jobs in the formal sector have been rising fast.
    Industry activity, however, is showing signs of slowing. The government expects the economy to grow by about 5 percent in 2012 compared with more than 8 percent this year.
    That, coupled with surging labor costs that are eroding competitiveness, is prompting business leaders and government officials to call for unions to show moderation when wage negotiations start in February or March.
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