After a month of union conflict that immobilized the load of a thousand containers, the Port of Rosario is back in operation after agreement reached between the stevedores and the concessionaire from local terminals.
The parties reached an agreement during a meeting held at the National Ministry of Labour, an agreement which contemplates the reincorporation of 20 stevedores, salary increase of 90% per annum and payment of 65% of the strike days.
The secretary general of the Rosario delegation of the United Argentine Port Union (SUPA), César Aybar, assured that normal activity will resume next Monday in the port of Rosario.
The conflict between the concessionaire Terminal Puerto Rosario (TPR) and SUPA It was triggered a month ago by the discussion on a salary increase, which led to several days of strike, the blocking of the docks and the sacking of 25 stevedores.
“There was an agreement, 20 of the 25 colleagues were reinstated and the 5 fired with just cause received compensation as if they were without just cause,” said Aybar.
Furthermore, he indicated that the redundant will have access to the “unemployment fund for one year” and will enjoy “social coverage for six months”.
The union representative also reported that in the joint discussion they obtained “a 90 percent salary increase until March of this year, with a review clause”.
The deal reached in the Labor portfolio also includes “a clause that no one can be made redundant or suspended for lack of work or infrastructure problems,” Aybar said, in relation to TPR’s lack of investment in local docks in terms of infrastructure.
For this reason, on 7 December, the representative of the TRP (a company between the Chilean Ultramar and the local Vicentina which manages the local docks) was dismissed from the post he held in the Administrative Body of Puerto Rosario (Enapro), the control body of licensed terminals.
He was replaced by a representative of Port Services (Sepor), the company that has the concession for quays VI and VII of the Port of Rosario.
The head of the local SUPA has argued that an improvement has also been agreed for fixed-term TPR personnel, while the concessionaire has undertaken to pay the Christmas bonus to the 20 now reinstated redundancies.
This week The Argentine Industrial Union (UIA) had asked the Ministry of Labor to declare “essentiality” of the activity of the Port of Rosario to handle loads, after the closure of the terminals for almost a month.
According to the monitoring carried out by the manufacturing body, the conflict has kept “immobilized the load of over 1,000 containers”, which “seriously disturbs the functioning of foreign trade”.
The beginning of the conflict
The conflict arose following a series of layoffs operated by the concessionaire of piers 1 and 2 of the port of Santa Fe, Terminal Puerto Rosario (TPR). Since then, the business has been crippled by a measure of force by the United Argentine Port Union (SUPA).
On December 28, a week ago, Olmos’s portfolio in office ordered the mandatory conciliation, which was supposed to bring the conflict to zero and get everyone back to business, while a solution was negotiated.
That truce was not respected by the union, as denounced by the UIA. “The workers grouped in the Unidos Portuarios Argentinos (SUPA) union have decided not to respect the mandatory conciliation and to maintain the interruption of the port activity of loading and unloading,” said Funes de Rioja.
“The conflict in question not only violates the free movement of goods within the national territory, but also, by preventing the transit of essential products and inputs for production chains of public interest, at the same time puts at stake the rights to life and health of the citizens of the country affected by this measure”.
For this, as he said, the manufacturing body asked Minister Olmos to declare the port of Rosario an “essential activity”, against the background of the conflict in the port of Buenos Aires in September.
Source: Clarin
