Rio Santiago Shipyard (ARS) in Ensenada, Buenos Aires

They want to take the ship "Eva Perón" away from us...

They are dynamiting our ARS...
Let's meet in a General Assembly, to defend the 100% of the shipyard, with reactivation and reinvestment!

Menem's (former Argentine president) plan II for the ARS is underway. They have discussed it at the highest levels of the Government and FEMPIMRA (Federation of Naval, Port and Shipyard Worker Unions) leadership. After the defeat of the dock workers of Terminal 5 in Buenos Aires, now it is ARS´s turn.

The plan is clear. Defense Minister Agustín Rossi's shipbuilding plan is for the private companies, which are working in full stands. For the ARS it means reconversion and private capital. The quarantine in the shipyards was only for ARS. The rest of the naval factories and ports were declared essential. Let them not lie anymore.

If our ARS is closed, it is not because of the quarantine. It is because Ariel Basteiro (ARS President) and Pancho Banegas (ATE - State workers union leader in Ensenada) are turning it into a repair shop for the Buenos Aires Province. That's why they don't want us to finish the "Eva Perón". That's why the cranes are still lying around.

Now the union leadership with a voice of (false) surprise are demanding the 1979 agreement to sell out ARS be corrected. But they knew everything!                                           
In the hands of Banegas, Basteiro and Axel Kicillof (Governor of Buenos Aires province), the UTN (other state workers union, rival to ATE) report is like  dynamite. They have come to finish the work of the "hyena" Maria Eugenia Vidal (former governor of Buenos Aires province). That is why they have us outside the factory!

Their plan is for us to enter in groups according to work demand, thus ensuring that all comrades are not in the plant at the same time to face this Menemista plan. They have liquidated the body of delegates and turned ATE union into one more Government Ministry. There is nothing casual here. They are coming for ARS. That is the pact of J.C. Schmid (FEMPIMRA leader), Banegas and the Fernandezes Government.
LET'S CALL A GENERAL ASSEMBLY. FOR EVERYBODY IN. FOR A NAVAL CONSTRUCTION PLAN
The ARS can only be defended by the workers' struggle. We did it against (former Argentine President Mauricio) Macri and now things will not be different. Banegas is not going to defend the ARS. He has sold out the union, as he did with the collective bargaining agreement with the empty-handed minutes and as he sold out our wages and work. In his 9 years at the head of the union, the two ships we had to build (named 79 and 80 for their stands) were not ended.
Let everybody come to the factory. General assembly to decide by show of hands. Let Banegas and those who want the ARS to make pots and spoons come. Thus it will be clear that most of us want a 100% state ARS, with reinvestment and reactivation.
Assemblies in each section. Delegates mandated by the bases. Let the bases decide!
Let everybody come inside the ARS to prevent the reconversion plan and its Menemista plan II! Reactivation of the ARS. We have to end with the 79 and 80. We ourselves have to enter and make it produce.
They tell us there is no money. Let  them open the accounting books in Banco Provincia (Buenos Aires Province Bank). We want to see the entry and exit of PDVSA's deposits (the ARS was building oil tankers for Venezuela, NT).
Let's call for collective bargaining agreements now, as the comrades of Intendancy and grinding operations have demanded. $AR 93 thousand (usd 700) of basic monthly wage like the oil mill workers. The oil mill workers put a number to the minimum wage and showed that the way to win is to struggle and break the social pact ...
Let’s unify with the comrades of Tandanor (former state owned shipyard, now a State/private capital joint venture). The Tandanor managers who signed the 79 are the ones who fired and prosecuted the comrades' delegates.
Schmidt and the perpetual old union bureaucratsof FEMPINRA are not going to divide us. We must fight together with Tandanor workers and the dockers for a plan for the ports and the shipping industry. These anti-national Governments left our ports to the American and  European corporations and the maritime routes and freights to the big ship-owners. That is why they do not want an ARS that manufactures oil tankers and bulk carriers.
We cannot leave our beloved shipyard in the hands of Banegas, Basteiro and their SocialPact. It will only be safe in the 3,000 pairs of hands of the comrades. For a worker recallableARS president voted in assemblies and controlled by the bases.
Down with the conspiracy of the social pact among the UIA, the Fernandezes and the union bureaucracy against the ARS. They say that there is no money for the ARS and that you have to put your shoulder while billions of dollars are paid by the Province to the IMF and the bondholders.
How is it that "there is no money"? The millions of dollars for our naval industry and our sovereignty are in ports and in foreign trade today in the hands of multinationals. The oil mill workers 'strike laid bare the multimillion dollar businesses they run that the bosses' governments will never touch. There is the money to set up a national flag fleet. For the nationalization of all the ports of the nation under their workers’ control.
We call La Marrón, State Tribune, Anchor, etc., (worker groupings inside the union)to make a block of combative workers in defense of a 100% ARS, with reactivation and reinvestment.
The shipyard is sovereignty. That is why they are selling it out. It has to be defended with everyone inside.
GENERAL ASSEMBLY. EVERYBODY TO ARS. EVERYBODY INSIDE.
DOWN THE LOCK-OUT OF BASTEIRO, KICILLOF AND THE FERNANDEZES. LET'S FINISH 79 AND 80.
$ 93 THOUSAND OF BASIC MONTHLY WAGE FOR EVERYONE LIKE THE MILL OIL WORKERS.
FOR THE UNITY OF NAVAL WORKERS OF ALL SHIPYARDS.
NAVAL PLAN OF CONSTRUCTION OF A NATIONAL FLAG FLEET
FOR OUR SHIPYARD TO DEATH. WE WILL OVERCOME.