Reality dealt a strong blow to Jorge Balkenende and his colleagues when they found out at the door of the Diarco wholesaler in the municipality of Lanúsin the south of the Buenos Aires suburbs, who could not enter their workplace.
Against them, and thousands of other formal and informal workers across the country, The economic model of La Libertad Avanza continues to devastate which, based on the adjustment of income and economic contraction, is leaving victims in the path of the official promise to lower inflation.
The numbers of growing unemployment in the most populated territory of the country, in the 24 districts that make up the Conurbano of the Province of Buenos Aires, They leave no doubt about the labor catastrophe that is being experienced: it reaches 9.9 percent. This figure exceeds the national average (7.7 percent) by more than two points.
The life of the now former employees of the Diarco branch changed completely when at the end of last month, at the morning entrance to the hypermarket, they were notified by a notary of that the branch was going to close, as had also happened in the neighboring municipality of Berazategui, and that their compensation was going to be settled. The world fell apart for them.
After the mandatory conciliation with the provincial Ministry of Labor was issued, to try to reverse the dismissals, it was decided that the firm would pay compensation that, in some cases, according to what was indicated by the Lanús and Avellaneda Trade Employees Union – SECLA- Diagonalsin some cases they reached 120 percent.
The situation was more than uphill for Jorge, a lifelong resident of Lanús, aged 33, who has a partner and three children. He was with the company for fourteen years, He entered at 18.
“It was practically my lifelong job, it’s what I always dedicated myself to. Unfortunately, today that the company closed, I find myself in a different reality,” said Jorge, who joined the company as soon as he finished high school and has been a representative at the company for six years.
In addition to working at Diarco, Jorge had to have another extra job for a long time, to pay the rent and make ends meet, in the heat of an inflation that gives no respite and that ate away at the pockets of millions of people. He already worked with the Uber and Cabify applications, and took every “changuita” that came his way. Now this income became more than essential for him.
The macroeconomic numbers show a very strong drop in consumption in the Conurbano. In Diarco Lanús, how did this affect you?
-The truth is that before the closure the situation had changed quite a bit from what we had been working on before. Consumption in general had dropped a lot. We had a street count. Before we made forty or fifty orders per day, but then we went to making five, seven, nothing more.
When did you notice this abrupt drop in daily work?
-Clearly with the change of government. The truth is that until then we had always been working very well, in fact we had closed the year with good numbers. The closing took us by surprise precisely because of that. Even though the last three or four months were very bad, it seemed like a hasty decision that we didn’t expect.
Two months before what happened to you, Diarco had already closed in Berazategui…
–There, the authorities came one day and closed it down. The difference is that there was no union organization or advice to the people. They registered them and offered them 50% severance pay agreements. A different reality to ours. And on top of that, it was the branch in Greater Buenos Aires that sold the most. It’s not clear what they did there either.
Those of us who had been in the company for many years had colleagues who had changed branches. At times we took inventories together, we provided support. We were not oblivious to their situation, we always tried to lend a hand, knowing that it could also touch us, and today unfortunately the reality is this.
It was not the first crisis they had faced, they had to deal with a pandemic and they were able to overcome it, but this time the owners said ‘this is as far as we go’
–Our working hours were always from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. During the pandemic we worked from seven in the morning to nine at night. Obviously, it was useful for us as workers because it was one more ‘coin’ that we took home. There were almost two years of sales, a surplus. Incredible. And on this occasion, they came out to say that after a drop in the last three months they had decided to close, without being able to match a situation that seemed to me to be not so critical. I think they took advantage of the change in government and decided to close. You have to think that they were owners of the property, that they did not pay rent. What they did was very illogical, but we must also take into account that they operate in other areas: real estate businesses, they have companies that do canning. Are they going to leave such a property there without using it? For me they are going to point to something else.
What was it like on the day you were notified of your layoffs?
-We arrived like any other day. It was very early and we were already starting to do our tasks and before eight o’clock The company’s Human Resources people arrived and told us not to raise the blinds, that we were going to have a meeting. They even showed up with a notary. They notified us in writing, without a single signature, without anything. It said that the branch was closing and that it had ceased operations. They told us that they were going to deposit the liquidation supposedly in a timely manner, but it was all verbal, nothing written down. There was no telegram.
What measures did they take?
-We call the union (the The union of Commerce Employees of Lanús and Avellaneda (SECLA) decided to stay inside. We requested the intervention of the Ministry of Labor (of the Province of Buenos Aires) until the situation was clarified. Everything was very ‘tied up with wires’. After the obligatory conciliation, they started paying us the compensation.
Do you still keep in touch with your former colleagues?
–We still have a bond between us. In fact, last Monday, we got together for lunch. We are all on the same page, It is very very difficult to get a permanent job. The employment portfolio is very small. We are already older people, over thirty, thirty-five, forty years old. And everything is reduced even further. The truth is that salaries are very precarious too. It is really difficult to continue. Those who have not been able to put something together or plan something else in all these years find it difficult to find work.
Do you think the economic situation will improve in the near future? What do you say to any of your colleagues who voted with some hope for Milei’s proposal?
-One tries to be optimistic but we are in a very difficult situation. A lot of progress is being made against labour rights. In our case there was only one colleague who voted for Milei. The truth is that he wants to kill himself (laughs). He even asked me for forgiveness. I said it even more, he even asked me for forgiveness. The worst thing of all is that we all knew this was going to happen. This economic disaster that we had, later ended in the closure of our branch, and made us lose our jobs. He told us that he feels guilty, a little. The change was this. Unfortunately, it was not a change for the better.
What wonderful moments did you take away from your time at Diarco?
-A lot of things come to mind. I was in there for fourteen years. You can imagine that I have a lot of memories with my teammates, and so do they. We met for lunch and it was a caress because we shared nine, ten hours together every day. End of year parties, lunches, breakfasts. They are the things that are missed the most. Then, at work, one will have to go out to work. To shuffle and give again. There is no other option.
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