The workers enrolled in the Single Union of Toll and Allied Workers (SUTPA) decided not to abide by the mandatory conciliation issued by the Ministry of Labor in the midst of the conflict for which The toll collection stations were released on the La Plata-Buenos Aires Highway and on the road corridors of the Atlantic Coast. This decision, considered “incomprehensible” by the authorities of Autopistas Buenos Aires SA (AUBASA), generates a million-dollar loss every day that passes in the provincial coffers.
According to spokespersons for that state-owned company, the firm collects more than 55 million pesos per day for the use of traces it manages, which indicates that in the three days that the strike has been going on, the amount that stopped coming in is around 160 million pesos.
The conflict began in the early hours of Monday, January 2, and since then the rate has not been charged on the highways that are under the management of the provincial state. From AUBASA they considered that the measure of force of the Single Union of Toll and Related Workers (Sutpa) “it started suddenly and for an indefinite period of time”.
According to the firm, the measure was taken without prior notice, “thus preventing the manual collection and automatic collection of the toll” at a “crucial” time for “the operational work of 100% of our collaborators, serving motorists who circulate through our track”.
That same day, the Buenos Aires Ministry of Labor issued the mandatory conciliation to annul the force measure promoted by the toll workers union, but the decision was not complied with by the union that continued with the high barriers. Within this framework, the portfolio that leads Walter Correa summoned delegates from the AUBASA company and the Single Union of Toll and Allied Workers (Sutpa) to a hearing for next January 5 at 3:00 p.m. to unblock the conflict.
During that same day, consulted by 0221.com.arspokesmen for the union that is carrying out the protest indicated: “Although they told us verbally about the conciliation, we have not yet been notified”.
The truth is that the tolls continued to not work, generating strong discomfort among the AUBASA authorities. “The lack of compliance with the mandatory conciliation is surprising,” spokespersons for the company indicated, considering the decision as “a serious political problem of Facundo Moyano“. Within this framework, the company asked the Ministry of Labor to inspect compliance with the conciliation.
As I already informed 0221.com.ar In a similar dispute that occurred a few months ago, the union demanded the transfer to the plant of 100 “temporary” employees. It transpired that in one of the last meetings AUBASA proposed that this claim be addressed and that the hundred workers go to the plant, but there was no response from the union. At that time they also claimed that the rate was late and that it was necessary to increase it. “Now it is updated and they stop the same”, they complained from the company.
One reading of the conflict is that the underlying fight involves control of one of the businesses parallel to the highways. As this medium was able to know, strictly speaking, the underlying fight is that “The union wants to keep the business of cutting grass on Highway 2 and other services that were previously tendered, strictly speaking they seek to take control of the company”.
In finer numbers, the daily loss per measure is $55.8 million and in “in the three days of force measurement it already takes more than 160 million”, lostthey said. “It is money that does not enter the company, which is assigned to salaries, so the province, that is, all the people of Buenos Aires, will have to allocate resources to pay them,” they lamented.
From the company, they clarified that “there are no problems or salary claims, AUBASA gave an increase on account. There is also a layoff situation.” That is why they consider that the measure is forced is “excessive and inappropriate.”
At the time of launching the forceful measure, the union pointed out that “there is a lack of a conversion plan that contemplates and contains the workers.”
“For more than a year we have been demanding as an organization that the company make almost 100 colleagues effective,” they indicated and added that AUBASA “does not respect the workers or the Labor Contract law.”
They also reported that “there are claims for poor building conditions in different workplaces.” “In August 2021 it was the first strike that we made to this concessionaire under the presidency of Ricardo Lissalde. This official demonstrated from the beginning of his management a clear anti-worker conduct, he has no desire for dialogue nor does he respect what is agreed with the Sutpa “, they concluded.
