The workers of the National Institute of Industrial Technology (INTI) They demonstrated on General Paz Avenue in rejection of about thousand layoffs and closure of 25 regional offices of that organization in different parts of the country. In response, they were evicted and repressed by the City Police, whose political authorities celebrated the results. Among the day’s successes was a woman with a broken hand and another worker with a knee injury. After the eviction, another even stranger situation occurred: The police laid siege to the INTI and, for several hours, prevented even suppliers and clients from leaving.. Finally, they withdrew. The INTI authorities agreed to continue discussing next week, when there will be new mobilizations.
The gas and the sticks were the response to the mobilization on the General Peace of the workers who were demanding the layoffs. Initially, the employees grouped in the State Workers Association (ATE) They gathered at the headquarters of the organization located on General Paz, 200 meters from Constituciónntes Avenue. Then they moved along one of the collectors in the direction of the Riachuelo, near Villa Maipú.
“The INTI assembly voted to make a partial cut of the General Paz due to the announcement of a thousand layoffs, between voluntary and monotributist retirements,” Daniel “El Tano” Catalano, general secretary of ATE Capital, told this newspaper. “The City infantry arrived. We were discussing with the commissioner who was in charge to have three lanes for vehicles to circulate. We had already freed a lane and a half, but the infantry cut everything off.“warned the union leader.
Stick and gases
All the stories of those who were repressed agree on this: the arrival of the police, with the supposed purpose of freeing circulation, aggravated the cut. “It was an infantry advance without further words. They simply advanced when we were arguing. A colleague has a fracture in her hand due to a shovel that she received due to their advance and a colleague has a knee injury.“said Catalano. The police pushed the mobilization towards the collector, using batons and pepper spray.
“Later, we returned to the INTI and the infantry of the City of Buenos Aires cut off entry and exit access to the building and We had to negotiate for them to leave, because they did not allow people to leave their jobs.“he said.
The situation at the City Police site prevented the circulation of INTI suppliers and clients, according to Daniel Luna, from the orange list of ATE INTI: “There was repression to evict us. They fired gas. They hit a colleague And then we went to the door of the Institute and stayed there for a long time, because that whole operation was planted at the door of the INTI. There were even some clients and suppliers who wanted to leave and they did not allow the way.“. The right to movement, it seems, is not for everyone
The celebrations
“For those who come to repress us, at the INTI we certify their bulletproof vests”, one of the professionals reproached the police while they handed out sticks and gas in front of the television cameras. After the beatings, came the celebration of the operation by the Buenos Aires Minister of Security, Waldo Wolff: “As we always say: demonstrate yes, block the street, no,” he said and stressed that they were “applying the law” by order of him .
The head of Government, Jorge Macri, expressed himself along similar lines: “Order is not negotiated. Once again, we managed to avoid a picket in General Paz.”
A brand of the time.
The underlying question
The protest aimed to give visibility to the decision to cut 30 percent of staff: between 900 and a thousand jobs. Also to close many INTI headquarters in the provinces. “After the repression, a meeting was held with the authorities, where an intermediate room was held with the union’s proposal that there be no dismissals. We are talking about monotributistas who charge 270 thousand pesos. The INTI is below the optimal provision. There is no one left over,” Catalano remarked.
“The authorities confirmed to us that in the following days there will be a thousand layoffs. This has to do with the reduction of personnel by 30 percent. And on the other hand, the restructuring of the INTI. On Friday they notified the extension units of the interior that were going to be closed. That’s why we protested now. There will be a new assembly Monday or Tuesday of next week. And we are going to mobilize in Congress when the basic law is voted on, which directly affects us,” Luna said.
These are measures that were announced by the head of INTI Daniel Afione, former manager of Toyota: “Proceed to close all provincial headquarters that do not have a laboratory”. Those who were part of those headquarters are given the option of voluntary retirement or moving to another headquarters. In some cases – such as in the eight Patagonian locations – it is not a real option: “They are pushing us to move to centers more than 500 kilometers away with our families”, indicated the southern workers. The measure coincides with the closure of decentralized headquarters of ANSES, PAMI and other social areas.
From INTI, There are 25 locations throughout the country that are going to close, to which are added the layoffs that are not limited only to the staff of those headquarters. “The total number of agents has remained stable for more than 10 years since it responds to the minimum staffing needs to sustain activities and comply with legally assigned responsibilities,” the workers indicate.
