In the midst of the wave of union adhesions to the general strike of the CGT this Thursday, a group of union leaders decided do not join the strike and criticize the protest methodology against the government of Javier Milei, even though some also question official policies.
Dante Camaño, head of the Capital section of the Union of Tourism, Hotel and Gastronomic Workers of the Argentine Republic (UTHGRA); Facundo Lancioni Kaprow, general secretary of the SEducA Union (Union of Argentine Educators), and Marcelo Peretta, leader of the Argentine Union of Pharmacists and Biochemists (SAFYB) are three of those union members who show their deep differences with the CGT and distance themselves from the shape chosen to claim.
The most experienced of the “anti-strike” leaders is Camaño, at the head of the Buenos Aires section Gastronomicos since 1985 and fought to the death with Luis Barrionuevo, his former brother-in-law. Militant of Republican Peronismsupported candidates from Together for Change and was part of the list of candidates for national deputy of that coalition for CABA in the last elections. He already gave the note on May 1, when, simultaneously with the mobilization of the CGT for Worker’s Day, he organized a locro in his union in which the vice president participated. Victoria Villarruel and Buenos Aires officials and PRO leaders such as Waldo Wolff and Jorge Triaca, among others.
Now, in dialogue with Infobae, He was forceful in rejecting the CGT’s measure of force: “I do not share the strike. A year ago we were the same or worse because there was not even hope and no one said about going on strike. The reasons they have are like those of the march we saw today (referring to the picketer demonstration in the northern zone) and those guys are not worried about the labor reform or the Income Tax because they were taken by people who live off the work of poverty.”
Camaño assured that “some union leaders confuse union rights with labor rights, which are two different things.” “What happens to the workers is one thing and what happens to the union members is another. I don’t confuse that,” she added. And when asked about why the CGT is carrying out the strike, he responded with a controversial definition: “I have no idea. This strike is from a CGT that is co-opted by the left. In other words, we end up like we did in the 70s, but in reverse. Instead of calling us a union bureaucracy and fighting to kill us, as they killed Kloosterman, Vandor, Rucci and so many others, “The left now gets into the CGT and sells its speech to it.”
Peretta, For his part, he is a union member who defines himself as “liberal Peronist” and was the axis of the union organization of Patricia Bullrich. He was even the one who introduced Milei to the current Minister of Security, although now she is in a critical stance of the Government, whose management considers a “Lost opportunity” because the President “became convinced that the financial economy is better than the real economy” and “he is so obfuscated by businessmen that the Ministry of Labor gave them.”
“(Milei) increased more taxes than Alberto Fernández and all Kirchnerism and the proposal now is to continue increasing taxes; “This is not a liberal government, it is a business government,” emphasized the head of the Argentine Union of Pharmacists and Biochemists, who was even the promoter of the judicial protection that stopped the deregulation of pharmaceutical activity included in DNU 70.
In any case, Peretta questions the general strike this Thursday: “The strike does not solve the problem that Argentina has. We must talk to the deputies and senators, who are the representatives of the people and the provinces, to convince them of a true union and labor reform. AND The next day after the strike nothing changes and more cracks are generated because the Government is going to further expose the unionists who did nothing in Alberto’s government and now they are going to stop, and on the other side there are leaders who do not feel listened to and are going to have even more anger.”
Lancioni Kaprow, the youngest of the “anti-strike” union members consulted, leads a stronger teaching union in the Buenos Aires district and for years differentiated from their peers who often paralyze schools with forceful measures that affect students and their families. “The strikes destroy the educational system,” He dared to say it in 2021, during the pandemic, when he defended the presence of teachers in the classrooms and almost all union members preached the opposite.
Today, the head of SEducA is another of the critics of the CGT strike: “We are not going to join because we are convinced that teachers have to be in the classrooms teaching classes and, above all, because “This strike call is not clear.”. What does it mean that it is not clear? “If it is because of the Bases Law, it is in the Senate and has not yet come out, and also the economy has stabilized,” he pointed out. In the salary area, Teachers in Capital are better than two years ago. Purchasing power is recovering. Last year in the city we achieved 185% increase and Today a teacher who is just starting out earns about $800,000, without national teaching parity, which was the one that lowered the floor.”
“This is a strike to wear down Milei,” said Lancioni Kaprow, who gave an example of his definition: “The CTA and (Roberto) Baradel joined the CGT strike in January, but, at that time Which teacher was going to join if we were on vacation, as stated in our agreement? And in the province of Buenos Aires, governed by Axel Kicillof, there was no strike and In the city of Buenos Aires they already did 7, although the teachers do not give it importance and are going to work anyway.”
For this leader, workers still trust the Government, despite the economic crisis. “Of course there is trust,” he stressed. If there were elections today, Milei would clearly win again. Or is there any doubt that there is no opposition? There is a hope of the worker, although unfortunately there are fewer and fewer of us who are in the workplace and These unionists who promote the strike are part of the caste. When did they defend the worker? “They are complicit in this decline.”
Camaño also believes that the workers mostly support Milei, although he pointed out that responsible from the crisis to inflation, the lack of reference prices, subsidies and the “tremendous” tax burden that exists. “We need very deep things and It will take many years to solve them -Indian-. Now we are becoming aware that we cannot continue living like a crazy old woman who spends with her card because at some point we have to pay. We cannot continue issuing, issuing, issuing and maintaining millions of social plans and 9 and a half million retirees if there are no contributions. We didn’t get here because of what this crazy man did. (by Milei). “This crazy man just arrived and found all this that we have been doing for more than 50 years.”
For Peretta, however, Milei “it is a missed opportunity” because “before he said that real changes cannot be made in 5 minutes, but now he put (Luis) Caputo to do financial economy and try to change it overnight and that’s why “It’s going to end badly.”
He considered that the President “he became convinced that the financial economy is better than the real one, but the real economy is to produce and work, with lower taxes and lower withholdings for the countryside so they can export.” And he added: “However, now the withholdings are not touched, the taxes are not touched but rather they are increased, and they even want to return to the Income Tax. That It suffocates the economy and discourages production. To make matters worse, money continues to be issued and debt contracted.”
Refering to labour reform promoted by the Government, and cut to the size of several CGT demands, the three “anti-strike” unionists did not agree. Camaño he said he is “halfway”although he criticized the leaders “who are businessmen, very rich and demagogues, who talk to you about rights, but do not tell you what “The rights do not apply, they are a dead letter.”
That is why he believed that the course chosen by Milei is the correct one, although he expressed his doubts about whether he will be able to implement the necessary changes because “there are going to be millions of guys on the street and “You cannot govern every day with millions of guys on the street.” He added that “there are many people who do not work, the world has totally changed and “Many leaders do not want to realize it.”
Peretta, For his part, he described libertarian labor modernization as a “I do not change” and stressed: “I do not think like the CGT, even though I may agree in criticizing the Government that this is not a reform. Alfonsín was wrong. De la Rúa was wrong. Macri was wrong. Now it’s going to be exactly the same. This labor reform does not include competition between small unions and large ones. Why do they maintain the single union union and not allow everyone to participate? They don’t do it because they don’t dare and, furthermore, because they handed everything over to the UIA. It never happened that the Ministry of Labor is in the hands of the employers. “It’s like putting the fox in the henhouse.”
Instead, Lancioni has a positive opinion. “Labor reform is necessary -said-. The world of work needs people to come and go. Now everything is stagnant. People leave, but do not enter. I prefer that he enter and leave because even if he leaves, in the long run more will enter. Today they are not entering the world of work but rather the world of planning. That is why the reform is a interesting challenge.”
