The trade union Asociación Gremial de Trabajadores del Subte y Premetro (AGTSyP) has announced that it will halt all Subte underground rail lines between 1pm and 5pm on Friday, if Metrovías y SBASE refuse to hire more employees for new E-line stations.
The union and the operator will meet Friday at 10am in an attempt to reach a deal over the E-line stations, an issue that has created discontent among Subte workers. The meeting was set for yesterday but the City’s subsecretary of labour had attempted to arrange an intermediary.
"The AGTSyP announces an act of direct action in case the meeting scheduled for tomorrow at 10am fails,” union leaders said of Friday's meeting in a press release. “The method of self-defence will consist of the paralysation of the six Subte lines and the Pre-metro [service] between 1pm and 5 pm on Friday, September 6.”
The union stated that the show of force would be a demand the hiring of “corresponding personnel to work in the ticket boxes of the Catalinas and Correo Central Norte” stations of the E-line, opened several weeks ago. Leaders hinted at additional potential strikes next week if demands are not met.
“Sadly we see ourselves obligated to adopt this attitude, due to the failure of a series of meeting with the City’s Subsecretary of Labour, though Metrovías and SBASE continue to not comply with the 2013 agreement,” union leaders said.
The agreement in question establishes a minimum number of employees in Subte stations and security conditions so that they can work on a daily basis.
“We hope that concessions by Metrovías as well as Subterráneos de Buenos Aires (SBASE) will help them reflect about their negligent attitude at the tables of dialogue, and in case it is not this way, we will see ourselves as having the necessity of deepening acts of self-defense next week,” the union finished.
Throughout the conflict, the AGTSyP has already carried out a strike on all Subte lines last Wednesday between 9 and 11:30 pm.
Metrovías has maintained that the demand of hiring more personnel “is totally unjustified” and that “the endowment for the line in question is complete for operational necessities.”
– TIMES/PERFIL
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