Union members have a reason to be optimistic: the precedent of decree 70/23. The blurred role of the opposition pole.
Without much compass after the sanction of the labor reform in summer sessions, and with internal communication cut off, the CGT is risking the political capital it has left (much or little) to stop the law in Justice.
For that, he already took the first step, which was the hermetic presentation of an amparo in the Federal Administrative Litigation Court No. 7 to annul the decision to transfer the Labor Jurisdiction from the national level to that of the City of Buenos Aires, a provision that had been included in the package sanctioned by Congress.
And not much more. Some union priests like Cristian Jerónimo, one of the triumvirs along with Jorge Sola and Octavio Arguello, keep the lines interrupted with their own ranks in Azopardo. A sign of the state of disorientation in which the headquarters finds itself after the setback that the approval of the law meant?
“Chaos reigns,” union sources indicated to Agencia Noticias Argentinas. In the labor organization they are clear that, once the political defeat has been inflicted in Congress, the next two fronts will be the judiciary and the streets.
But unionists have a reason to be optimistic: in January 2024, Justice suspended the labor chapter of the famous decree 70/23, which contained several of the points that ended in the reform sanctioned in February, so the CGT understands that if the judges followed the same criteria in the protection of rights, the result should not vary too much.
Example: that decree 70/23, which President Javier Milei presented on national television shortly after taking office, already included the “hour bank,” which modifies workers’ hours according to the employer’s demand, and also restricted the right to strike by requiring 75% of duties to be fulfilled for activities considered essential.
The Supreme Court, where the file ended up after the Government appealed the adverse ruling, never resolved the dispute. With the reform sanctioned by Congress, it is difficult for the highest court to reopen that case.
No news on the other front
Meanwhile, the group of opposition unions, with the UOM, Aceiteros, APLA and ATE at the head, is currently deactivated. Given the two mobilizations in Rosario and Córdoba, in addition to the march to Congress on Friday, February 27, when the law was passed, the armed opposition seems to have been left empty-handed.
ATE, for its part, attended the state joint meeting last Friday and rejected the 2.2 percent increase for February offered to the Government, a figure that UPCN, one of the strong unions of the CGT, did accept.