METALWORKERS COLLECTIVE BAIRGAINING

In a sector that produces enormous wealth, we receive the most miserable wages

We must disown this new robbery of our salary
General assemblies in each factory to reject it!

93,000 PESOS OF BASIC MONTHLY WAGE NOW! WE HAVE TO FIGHT LIKE THE OIL-MILL WORKERS!
Out with the businessman-union bureaucrat Caló from the UOM (METALWORKERS union)! We must put the UOM again on its feet!}

Businessman-union bureaucrat Caló signing of the metallurgical Collective Bargaining has further sunk the miserable wage of the metal workers, after his having sold out the historic achievements of our collective agreement to the employers, plus conceding the latter thousands of lay-offs, work flexibility, and precarious working conditions.
These are the conditions of exploitation that the union bureaucracy guaranteed to the Government and the employers, who, using the pandemic, unleashed a ferocious attack on us. This is the result of the social pact of the traitors of the UOM-CGT with the Fernándezes Government, the UIA (Argentine Industrial Union), the Rural Society and the bankers ... minor partners of the IMF.
Down with the Social Pact!
Although the negotiation has not yet been closed for the steel companies, it would not be surprising what happened last year would happen again when the agreement signed, was the same one as for branch 17. This negotiation with the Steelworks Chamber went to a recess for this week.
According to the agreement, the increase for branch 17, which would be charged in February and March of next year, is 25% in January and 10% in February, calculated on the base of April 2020, which still needs to incorporate approximately 5% of the 2019 collective bargaining. In other words, we are now ending 2020 and the 2019 collective bargaining has not been yet fully paid. And if that wouldn't be enough, there has not been a collective bargaining or increase during 2020, there was only a one-time bonus of 30,000 pesos paid in 5 installments (in the case of Acindar, 5,000 more pesos were added per month). By not going to the basic, the bonus and vacations will be charged according to the basic salary for April just as the bonus for June was charged. Furthermore, the Ternium Company (Siderar) refuses to pay the Christmas bonus to workers in the "at risk type" who are exempted from attending the factory during a pandemic. That means since April 2020, without Collective Bargaining, the employers have appropriated a huge amount of money that would have been going to our wages and we have not recovered what was lost due to inflation. (*)
The Reference Index of Global Minimum Income, which was implemented during Kirchnerism, only but hide the fact that in each Collective Bargaining our basic remains still a lot behind inflation.
In April, if the 17 branch workers´ net monthly wage was approximately 35 thousand pesos, which was equivalent to 437 dollars (80 dollars per peso), today the devaluation left that monthly wage at 238 dollars (taking an average exchange rate of 147 pesos per dollar).
A treacherous robbery! We have lost $ 199 that we will not be able to recover with the current Collective Bargaining.
In addition, there are two more clauses that tie our hands in the signed Act: 1)"social peace" (no industrial action can be taken until it is renegotiated) and 2) that if a company is either in "crisis prevention", with diminishing production, has had to furlough workers due to work reduction, or simply says that it "can't pay the wages previously agreed",  the amounts, terms and absorption regime for the payment of wages can be "adjusted" in agreement with the union.
As Miguez from PO (Partido Obrero) -Tendency, and Internal Labor Commission leader from Acindar Steelworks-Villa Constitución, says in their newspaper Politica Obrera (Worker Policy): "The pandemic is not to blame for this low salary, but Caló and his 'pro officialist vocation', whoever is in the government."
Already the metalworkers congress of last year in Campana resolved to support the Fernándezes and destroy our wages, and there, unfortunately, Miguez and the rest of the Internal Labor Commission subordinated themselves to Caló.
We cannot allow businessman-bureaucrat Caló to continue one more minute leading our union! Out with Caló, out with Brunelli, Furlán and all the businessmen-union bureaucrats! Let them go to the UIA (Industrial Employers Chamber) where they belong!
Miguez says in his note that he is going to call for assemblies in the Steelworks sectors. Let's call for them now! But what we need is a general assembly of both permanent staff and "temporarily" contracted workers  to reject this agreement, asking for 93 thousand pesos for basic monthly wage as oil-mill workers are doing, and for Calo to get out of the union!
Miguez also says that we must "link and coordinate actions in defense of jobs and the defense of our agreement." Very good!
Let's coordinate now with the oil-mill workers who are currently fighting and carrying out a national strike! We are all oil-mill workers!
Based on Miguez's declarations, who together with the Internal Labor Commission belong to the March 16 Unity Front, the latter has the possibility of calling for a National Metallurgical Plenary session with mandated base delegates  from all the metallurgical workers who have been marching against Caló, who fight for their jobs as in Gri Calviño, who fight for better wages, the payment of bonuses and against dismissals such as the workers of Tenaris Siat-Valentin Alsina and Siderca-Campana, in defense of the jobs in Acindar-La Tablada. The metalworkers from the workshops fired from Tenaris Siat Villa Constitución and those fired from Paraná Metal, would have to be there. All together we would vote on a real plan of struggle, and put the UOM on its feet, without businessmen-bureaucrats that sell us out.
The metal workers activist groups, internal labor commissions and militant delegates must promote this Plenary session.
Let's prepare a big fight for all our demands! NATIONAL STRIKE OF THE UOM NOW TO FIGHT TOGETHER WITH THE OIL-MILL WORKERS! There is no time to lose!
$ 93,000 of vital and mobile minimum monthly wage for all metal workers, as  requested  by the oil-mill workers! Contractor and outsourced workers have to be  incorporated to the permanent payroll with the same collective bargaining rights and wage conditions! Reincorporation of all fired metal workers! One more shift in all the factories without wage reduction so that thousands of unemployed young people can go to work!
METAL WORKERS AND OIL-MILL WORKERS, A SINGLE FIGHT!

La Gota Metal workers of Acindar Bulletin
Siderar's Base Workers.