Due to high inflation, trade unions reopen parity: UOCRA closes 14% more and rises to 76%

Due to rising inflation, more unions are on the wave of reopening their paritarias to renegotiate new wage increases. The last one was UOCRA, which this Thursday presented together with the business chamber of the sector, the new remuneration agreement.

As reported, the agreement provides an extra 14% increase., which is in addition to the 62% agreed at the beginning of last May. With which the increaseor now it will be 76%.

The joint agreement signed last May provided that the agreement it will be reviewed in November in case the price increase skyrocketed.

In the end this has happened before: just four months later, the guild that leads Gerardo Martinez and the Argentine Construction Chamber had to sit down to negotiate again.

They arrived in the CGT a few weeks ago observing that the wage agreements in this 2022 have ended up being very ephemeral.

The deal that was closed this Thursday has already been presented approval at the Ministry of Labor. It foresees a revision clause in November due to the current inflationary spiral.

May 62% agreement – construction business brings together 420,000 workers– it was configured as follows: 10% in May; 10% in June; 8% in August; 8% in September; 8% in October; 8% in November; 5% in January and 5% in February.

Now on September 8 an additional 5% will be added; another 5 extra on 8 October; and 4% from 8 November.

From UOCRA they did not want to make any statements this Thursday. Last May, closing the parity, Gerardo Martínez said: “Inflation is the tax on poverty and from a production point of view, as well as for the industrial sectors, it is not good to have these inflationary figures “.

The head of UOCRA is one of the main leaders of the CGT, where he holds the position of Secretary of International Relations.

Another joint

In August, the Federation of Commercial Employees, the largest trade union in the countrywas able to anticipate for that month the forecast of 10.5% for January 2023, based on the acceleration of prices in recent months, and also established a new revision for the beginning of the year.

On Tuesday, the governor of Buenos Aires, Axel Kicillohe met with representatives of public administration trade unions and announced a wage increase in September to reach, on average, a 25% increase this month.

Already in July, the UOM had reopened its parity signed in March and had stretched its increase to 65%.

As reported by Clarín, the national state sector unions (UPCN and ATE) have joined the private sector unions that are pressing to renegotiate their wage agreements.

This in the midst of the Minister of Economy’s offensive, Serge Massato drastically reduce public spending – a decision that included freezing the state facility’s revenues – in order to achieve the fiscal deficit target agreed with the IMF.

The intention of the referents of UPCN and ATEthe two unions that bring together the national public agents, is to bring forward the revision scheduled for October and in this context they agree to anticipate for this year the payment of the last two installments of the current agreement (two installments of 10% each) which, according to the schedule established last May, it would be paid in January and March 2023.