Tensions soared in Buenos Aires this week as mass lay-offs at state firms continued and the government deployed security forces to block dismissed workers from re-entering their former workplaces.
Security Minister Patricia Bullrich confirmed she had authorised a security operation to deploy troops to guard public buildings in response to industrial action by the ATE State Workers’ Association, which said it would call a strike Friday in response to the government’s latest moves.
President Javier Milei’s administration is seeking to mitigate the scale of the protests being launched by unionised state-workers against the mass dismissal of employees at public agencies and firms.
Demonstrations and assemblies were held at various sites amid reports that as many as 15,000 contracted workers had been let go by President Javier Milei’s government as party of its austerity push.
“The final number of contracts that have not been renewed is around 15,000, as part of the work we are doing to reduce state spending,” Presidential Spokesman Manuel Adorni confirmed at a press conference.
President Milei said last week that he plans to cut around 70,000 jobs from the civil service over the next year. According to the INDEC national statistics bureau, Argentina has more than 332,000 state workers.
“Javier Milei is making a mistake, he’s not firing ‘ñoquis,’ but workers who come to work every day,” complained Matías Reynoso, 35, an employee at the Labour
Secretariat.
Tensions
Tensions peaked outside the offices of the INADI anti-discrimination agency and the Labour Secretariat. A series of conflicts were reported throughout the day at both offices.
At INADI, workers forced their way past police and into the building that houses the agency. Fired staff said that “nearly 40 dismissals” had been ordered so far.
Most of those made redundant were were notified during the long Easter weekend, said ATE union.
Underlining the cold nature of the lay-offs and the manner in which they have taken place, reports began circulating of workers being told of their dismissals via WhatsApp messages and emails. Some arrived at work Wednesday unaware they were no longer employed.
Employees at the CONICET scientific research council on Wednesday were forced to line up in the rain outside the buildings at which they work, before being told one-by-one if they had a job or not. Scenes of the queue quickly went viral on social media.
Bullrich’s portfolio confirmed to local outlets that the goal of her operation is to “survey all federal buildings” amid reports that sacked state workers were attempting to regain entry to their former workplaces.
“They can’t usurp something they no longer have,” the often-controversial minister said in a radio interview. She defended the special security operation, which involved federal security forces and officers from the Coast Guard, declaring: “We will protect all public assets.”
On Wednesday morning, as workers at some state firms arrived to begin a normal day of work, they were confronted with the sight of Federal Police officers.
Government officials said their deployment was due to recent protests organised by the ATE, with many of its members staging “peaceful sit-in” demonstrations at agencies.
‘Plan of action’
Other unions have expressed unease at the mass lay-offs. The head of the CTA Argentine Workers’ Union, Hugo ‘Cachorro’ Godoy, said this week that its members would stage demonstrations calling for the re-hiring of the dismissed workers.
The Milei government is closely monitoring the action of ATE workers and its “plan of action” against mass public dismissals.
Last week, Milei had said that the “plan was to reach zero deficit by 2024” and that he was “convinced to carry out a fiscal adjustment, which has a lot of chainsaw and a lot of blender.”
Sources from the Casa Rosada revealed that given the recent takeover of offices by dismissed workers and allies, the Federal Police, the Coast Guard and the Gendarmerie (Border Guard), which have jurisdiction to intervene, will not hesitate to contain them and report people.
Defence minister Luis Petri warned that any workers occupying offices after being dismissed will have criminal complaints filed against them.
“They should be held responsible, the time has come for those committing crimes to be responsible. The rule of law applies to everyone,” he said in a TV interview.
Outside the offices of the Labour Ministry, which has been downgraded to a Secretariat by Milei, protesters called for the reinstatement of 14 workers who were recently dismissed.
On Wednesday, ATE Secretary General Rodolfo Aguiar denounced 11,000 lay-offs so far this year. He promised to challenge each of them in the courts. Government officials insist the decisions are “valid.”
“Over the weekend we counted over 11,000 dismissals. The President has decided to shake the Argentine legal system at its core, and both he and his officials could end up in jail,” the union leader claimed in a post on the X social network.
The chief of the ATE, which represents blue-collar state workers, accused the government of delivering “bringing mass dismissals to the state” and stated that “suppressing people’s fundamental rights is a conduct defined under the Criminal Code.”
– TIMES/NA
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