Before the advance of the Coronavirus pandemic in our country, today, spontaneously, a group of workers of the Rio Santiago Shipyard gathered together at the doorstep of the management office to demand hygiene conditions and the implementation of the Coronaviurs protocol. The conditions of abandonment and state disinvestment turned our workplaces into hazardous places where our lives are at risk. In this health crisis, the dangers are felt stronger.
The comrades, with much concern and a bit of an deger for other issues, questioned the fact that many workers had to continue going to work despite the conditions in which we are. So they voted in an improvised assembly the motion to respect the quarantine until March 31 (as it was done in schools), that is to say, that management give license to us all. There was a sector of the internal commission of the ruling bureaucracy that did not want to vote but the bases imposed it. The atmosphere was already heated and the approved decision was communicated to management.
Then the human resources manager came down saying that they were taking the measures that the government had instructed, and he was told off. Some comrades told him that they were irresponsible, that they had to close, that they could not guarantee the hygiene of the factory.
Soon the same manager returned to report that today and tomorrow (March 17 and 18) we would work less hours, until 12 noon, and Thursday and Friday (March 19 and 20) it would be closed due to disinfection.
Workers voted against the measures reported by the manager, as they were insufficient, so they continued to insist that the protocol has to be respected.
The comrades voted a female worker from one of the shipyard's offices, who was, reasonably, very alarmed by the coronavirus issue and has been working for 42 years in the factory, as spokesperson for the complaint. The workers told the representatives of the union not to enter the manager offices: “The lady is the one in charge. She is going to talk to the president; You are not”. They mandated her to insist again that what we want is the protocol to be respected.
Everyone wondered why Banegas (the leader of the ARS and the ATE union of Ensenada) did not appear and some comrades replied “we are the union”, while the union leaders disappear and do not care about anything.
The bureaucracy left, and there were only a few comrades waiting for Basteiro (president of the Shipyard) to come down to speak. This never happened. So the comrades decided to leave, seeing that even though they were very few they had conquered these short-term measures and not attending Thursday and Friday: “Only a handful of workers conquered that, imagine if all the comrades had been here”, they repeat.
The bosses and managers do not want quarantine for the slaves... Killer bosses! Workers’ health is defended by workers! Days off until the end of the pandemic, without wage reduction!
Correspondent