The port of Rosario, paralyzed by workers of the supa union
The Argentine Industrial Union (UIA) requested yesterday the Ministry of Labor to declare the activity in the Port of Rosario as “essential” in order to be able to mobilize the loads, after the stoppage that has been registered for a month due to a labor conflict and by the decision of a concessionary firm not to abide by the obligatory conciliation dictated by the portfolio.
According to the monitoring carried out by the manufacturing entity, “to date, the cargo of more than 1,000 containers remains immobilized”, something that “seriously disturbs the operation of foreign trade.”
With this backdrop, the expectation is set on the hearing scheduled for today in the national labor portfolio, after the failure of the last meeting between the parties held on Tuesday.
The Port of Rosario, which is managed by a concessionaire made up of the Chilean group Ultramar and the local company Vicentín, has been paralyzed for a month due to a labor dispute.
The controversy originated when the Rosario delegation of the United Argentine Port Union (SUPA) demanded to reopen the joint discussion and requested a salary increase that accompanies inflation.
But later the concessionaire Terminal Puerto Rosario (TPR) fired 25 workers, in the midst of several days of strike.
On December 29, when the conflict was already unleashed, the Ministry of Labor in charge of Kelly Olmos ordered the mandatory conciliation. Then, the activity should have resumed while a solution was being negotiated, but finally this measure was not complied with by the concessionaire of the Port and the terminals continue to be paralyzed to this day.
Sources familiar with the negotiations indicated that the parties advanced with the reinstatement of twenty of the dismissed and the dismissal of the remaining five with the payment of compensation.
However, the dismissed do not accept the measure and put pressure on the union of the sector.
Given the continuation of the conflict, the UIA expressed yesterday that the lack of activity “has paralyzed the loading and unloading of containers that are stranded in the open, affecting industries that need widely used supplies, perishable and even critical products.” contained therein, especially from the food and pharmaceutical sectors”.
In addition, “this paralysis -of the terminal, which is one of the main routes of the logistics circuit to the exterior- seriously disturbs the operation of foreign trade, generating the double damage of preventing local supply and the entry of foreign currency into the country,” he said. the manufacturing entity in the statement.
The UIA also stated that “Argentine companies -particularly grain, food, automotive and exporters of household appliances- have sales commitments and agreed deadlines with foreign clients to which they cannot respond, generating production stops, risks of loss of export markets and even sanctions for non-compliance with the commitments assumed”.
In search of a solution to the longstanding conflict, the entity chaired by Daniel Funes de Rioja expressed “the need to release the immobilized cargo as soon as possible.”
For this, he asked the Ministry of Labor to “proceed to ‘declare the essentiality’ of said activity so as not to continue affecting the value chains and restore the supply of goods throughout the country.”
