Sergio Massa’s support for union price control opened a new chapter of tensions with the private sector. Challenged by record inflation of 94.8% in 2022 and high inertia in December, Economy Minister In the last few hours he has come out to support the inspections of the Truckers Union in supermarkets, a measure that generated a reaction from entrepreneurs and motivated the convening of meetings for this week.
In Economics, they do not exclude meetings in the next few hours with managers to analyze the trend of Fair Prices, one of the main measures with which Massa has proposed to bring inflation in April of this year below 4% monthly – in December, was by 5.1% and 60% in 2023. The CPI is not expected to exceed 4% each month, but it is not easy with signs of food shortages and accelerations, according to private studies.
“What truckers do is provide the information process, they don’t control. Everyone, the government, the opposition, businessmen and workers must participate in a patriotic goal, which is to build an economy without inflation, because inflation it destroys savings and power purchases”, said the head of the Treasury in an interview with Infobae, after the checks carried out by the union led by Hugo and Pablo Moyano.
Massa had tried to differentiate himself from previous pricing policies with greater dialogue with companies. In February 2021, the Commerce Secretary, Paula Español, launched an organization to coordinate controls and movements have come out to ease prices. In October, Roberto Feletti expanded Precios Cuidados to 1,300 products, backed by mayoral inspections, but stepped down in May 2022, after inflation peaked at 6.7% in March.
Then, with the disembarkation of the minister and his secretary Matías Tombolini, the promise of dollars led the entrepreneurs to accept the freezing of 1,900 products until March. But the appearance of the secretary of the union’s Logistics section, Oscar Borda, together with the delegates in a warehouse in Coto it could mark a breakup. Borda showed up on social media on Friday morning at a supermarket stock check.
The news surprised more than one entrepreneur who had taken advantage of the January staff reduction to take the holidays, and it immediately hit the cameras. “State functions cannot be delegated at this level, outsourcing inspection and control responsibilities in terms of supply, is not typical of the rule of law,” said Daniel Funes de Rioja, head of the UIA and the COPAL chamber food industries. .
In Truckers assure that the visits included Disco, which will visit the former WalMart, Arcor and Molinos, and that there have been previous meetings with the Secretary of Commerce. In that agency they claim that there have only been inspections in supermarkets: last week, Cencosud, Coto and Carrefour, and the previous one was “the last major intervention” in 374 branches of the DIA supermarket. “Inspections are done every week,” they say.
Tombolini explained that the union’s intervention is to ensure that the price agreements are “respected”. “If it is right for companies to turn to the state when they have problems, it is right for the unions to do so too. the Argentines,” he said on Twitter.
The government “militias”.
The official arguments, however, They have added fuel to the fire in private affairs, where Moyano is feared. “Power in service cannot arm militias to help them at checkpoints and less entitled to a union that permanently engages in terrible practices, entering companies, attacking employees and entrepreneurs, is a terrible mistake, it is not right,” said the head of the Chamber of Commerce and Services, Mario Grinman.
In the meantime, supermarkets believe that the presence of “truck drivers” in official operations is “a secondary matter”. “The important thing about these checks is that they indicate the key to the success of the program, which is procurement,” said the head of the Association of United Supermarkets (ASU), Juan Vasco, who stressed that “the responsibility for shortages on the shelves is not attributable to supermarkets”.
In December, Massa hinted at tightening controls, when together with Axel Kicillof he announced training agreements with municipalities to “verify” prices and stocks. Since then, 39 mayors have joined, a figure that will reach 60 in the coming days, and fines of up to $1 million have been set that municipalities can apply. The Province thus became a hot territory. There, food was up 97.5% annually in 2022.
Source: Clarin
