Gerardo Martínez: “CGT supports the President and his Minister of Economy”

Judging by the meter of applause, Gerardo Martínez, the head of UOCRA, put together 400,000 construction workers, tied up with Martín Guzmán in front of about 800 businessmen of all sizes who heard him this afternoon at the magnificent Alvear Art in Puerto Madero.

Perhaps because of his long career at the ILO (International Labor Organization), Martínez was the chancellor of the CGT. But now, certainly, he has not used diplomatic language when referring to the tension in the ruling coalition and Cristina Kirchner’s questioning of economic policy.

“Look the workers do not know which country we are going to and I support Minister Guzmán. The CGT ddefends the institutionality of the presidential figure of Alberto Fernández and his Minister of the Economy “launched as a powerful message.

He expanded, in case there are doubts: “I support Guzmán because of him Wisdom is an alternative that is a standard against inflation and poverty. And from the CGT we have an institutional and republican responsibility carried out at the behest of Alberto Fernández as president. “

In passing, he clarified to the traders: “You they demand legal certainty and clear rules and so do we. The method is collective bargaining. Our union has just closed the parity with 62%”, he began by commenting that at a meeting some businessmen asked not to get involved in politics and the State in labor relations.

“At the negotiating tables, each falls into their container of grievances and is resolved within the framework of dialogue and mutual respect “He launched.

In a kind of ping pong with driver Alejandro Fantino, it was suggested to him that the pension system created by UOCRA for the temporarily unemployed, can be extended to other guilds. “Every guild has its rules,” Martínez cut him off. And in being read as a direct criticism of Cristina Kichner, she pointed that out ideology does not solve problems“Poverty must be solved without ideology,” he concludes.

-Do you also support the IMF agreement? Fantinus asked.

-I do not agree that we fell for the IMF in 2018. But once we take responsibility, we have to comply. Default, and I have discussed it at various levels, will lead to a catastrophe. There were 400,000 construction workers and we were living in 2001. If we ended up in default, there would be 30,000 left. We are no longer resistant to a new default.

Martínez commented that his activity depends on the private sector. He criticized the decline of private employment and the rise of public employment.

“We have to regenerate the relationship between capital and work, so that there is production, consumption and wages. We have to do it together to achieve the country we deserve. It is a shame the poverty and unemployment. During Alfonsín’s rule, 800 thousand PAN boxes with food were distributed. Now there are 12 million ”, the unionist concluded before leaving to applaud.