ARGENTINA-LABOUR: Adjustments Run into Human Barriers

By Marcela Valente Reprint | | Print |

Marcela Valente

BUENOS AIRES, May 27 1997 (IPS) - President Carlos Menem insists that the protests racking Argentina will not force changes in his government’s economic policy. But the structural adjustments are increasingly running up against human barriers, as demonstrators raise roadblocks around the country.

The unemployed and those who may soon join their ranks due to the closing of companies and the slimming down of workforces are the main protagonists of the wave of protests and roadblocks sweeping the country.

Labour Minister Armando Caro Figueroa acknowledged Tuesday that “unemployment is giving rise to social problems in the interior of the country,” while recognising the government’s responsibility for the widespread social turmoil.

The unrest has spread over the past two months in response to the closing of companies and the high unemployment, which affects 17.4 percent of the economically active population – 19.9 percent of women and 16.8 percent of men – added to 14 percent under- employment.

In small towns whose economy revolves around one or two companies, unemployment can skyrocket up to 70 percent with payroll cutbacks or factory closings.

Seven routes have been blocked in the northwestern province of Jujuy, which borders Bolivia, and workers there took to the streets Tuesday in a general strike, demanding the resignation of the governor, who was heading negotiations with the central government. The protesters rejected an offer of 2,000 temporary jobs, insisting that 5,000 were needed.

Catholic Bishop of Jujuy Marcelo Valentini warned of “the danger of a social outbreak” in his province, echoing the Church hierarchy’s insistence on the urgent need for government measures to keep the discontent from leading to violence.

Osvaldo Musto, in charge of labour affairs in the Catholic Church, underlined that the unemployment and poverty plaguing Argentina today could no longer be ignored. He pointed out that even the managing director of the International Monetary Fund, Michel Camdessus, warned last week that Argentina’s economic model was in need of an improved distribution of income and greater attention to social ills.

The conflict in Jujuy broke out with the blocking of Route 34, which joins Argentina and Bolivia, by workers protesting the paring of the workforce at ‘Ingenios Ledesma’, up to then one of the largest sugar refineries in Latin America.

The town of Libertador General San Martin in Jujuy, population 60,000, is so identified with the sugar mill that it is popularly known as ‘Ingenios Ledesma’. Some 15,000 people worked in the refinery, which also employed thousands of migrant workers from Bolivia. But last year the plant was modernised, and today it has only 3,000 Argentine seasonal workers on its payroll.

The mayor of Libertador General San Martin, Marcelo Llanos, says 48 percent of the town’s residents currently live below the official poverty line, while the rest are not much better off. The municipal government feeds some 3,500 children daily.

Route 34 has also been cut off near San Pedro, home to another sugar refinery, which is threatening to close. Route 66 has been blocked in the town of Palpal, where steel and iron workers are demanding compensatory jobs following the privatisation of a state- owned steelworks.

New roadblocks were put up Tuesday in Tucuman, in northern Argentina, Cordoba in the centre, and Chubut in the south.

The method began to catch on after routes were blocked in April near the towns of Cutral C and Plaza Huincul in the southern province of Neuquen. Roads have also been cut off near Rosario, the country’s second largest city, located in the central province of Santa Fe, and in Salta, a northern province bordering Jujuy.

In Neuquen and Salta, the protests were sparked by the closing of plants belonging to the YPF oil company, which left thousands out of work. But in Rosario, factories in a number of sectors were forced to close by the opening of the market and foreign competition.

Argentina’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) grew 18.3 percent from 1991 to 1995 due to the liberalisation of the market, privatisations, cutbacks in the public administration and fiscal adjustments.

But not all provinces have taken part in the growth. In Jujuy, for example, GDP fell 7.7 percent in the same period, while it plunged 32.4 percent in Tierra del Fuego, the country’s southernmost province.