The trade unions feel jittery ahead of the midterm vote.
Take it from an insider. Life in Argentina is “complicated.” Says who? Says Vilma Martínez, the outgoing United States ambassador to Argentina who bowed out at the July 4 reception in Buenos Aires on Thursday. “Complicated” can mean many things. It can mean that Argentina is difficult to explain. Even that July 4 reception was in itself “complicated” because Guillermo Moreno, the national government’s histrionic Domestic Trade secretary, had a bit of an argument with two journalists from the opposition daily Clarín. Explaining Moreno is complicated. Explaining Clarín is complicated, and so on. But there is a limit to how “complicated” a reception can be, so move on. The real complications for Argentina are beyond the plushness of embassies.
The national government, including Moreno, is facing complications surrounding the price and supply of wheat. It is also scrambling to control the price of 500 products that are part of an agreement with the major supermarket chains. The wheat shortage has increased the price of flour and bread, which is not the kind of thing you want to happen in an election year. The government on Friday said it was gearing to use a law to limit exports and seize the available wheat to sell on the local markets.
There are many ways of looking at the decision. The farmers complained bitterly that regulation is precisely the problem or, to quote an ambassador, the “complication.” At the same time some bakers associations expressed hope that the anti-hoarding law will force down the price of wheat and then the price of bread.
Moreno had time to go to that embassy reception. But he is a busy man. The Domestic Trade Secretariat on Thursday closed down four supermarkets in Greater Buenos Aires and Buenos Aires City on charges that they did not have all the 500 products with frozen prices available. The decision to shut down the supermarkets was largely symbolic, but it is another message that the regulation of the Kirchnerite era is not going away any time soon.
Admittedly the regulation could, eventually, go away, but will the complication? You are certainly kidding yourself if you think that Argentina’s perplexing complexity started with the rise of Kirchnerism to power in 2003.
Things are often especially traumatic here in an election year. There is a lot of turbulence at the moment. The train engine-drivers union, La Fraternidad, called a sudden strike halting metropolitan lines on Wednesday. The engine-drivers said they were protesting the delay of the midyear bonus payment. The strike left thousands of commuters stranded. Clashes broke out at Constitución Station. Interior and Transport Minister Florencio Randazzo accused the unions of staging the strike not because of any delays in the payment of salaries, but because the workers oppose a decision to fit engine-drivers’ cabins with surveillance cameras. Randazzo has decided to fit the cabins with cameras after two Sarmiento line trains crashed in Greater Buenos Aires on June 13, killing three people and injuring hundreds. A Sarmiento line train also rammed into the buffers at Once Station on February 22 last year, killing 51 people.
The Castelar crash was especially crushing for Randazzo, who was put in charge of the transport system after the Once Station crash. La Fraternidad is technically a pro-government union. But its leaders now seem at odds with Randazzo who is in charge of the reforms. The walkout by the engine-drivers was criticized by Rubén Sobrero, a leftist Sarmiento line union leader, who said that calling sudden strikes only makes life miserable for commuters.
The trade union unrest is also linked to the infighting in the Peronist party, which is now part of the ruling Kirchnerite Victory Front coalition. The anti-government faction of the CGT trade union grouping is headed by Hugo Moyano, the leader of the teamsters. Moyano parted ways with President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner ahead of the presidential elections in 2011 after she refused to meet his political demands. Most major industrial unions are still backing the CFK administration. The pro-government CGT is headed by Antonio Caló, the leader of the UOM metal workers union. But the Peronist trade union movement is now in turmoil since Tigre Mayor Sergio Massa announced that he will run for the Lower House of Congress in Buenos Aires province against the Victory Front (FpV). Massa’s ticket includes Héctor Daer, a union leader who was a member of the pro-government CGT. There is now effectively a rift in the pro-government CGT because Oscar Lescano, the head of the electricity workers union, has also said that he is no longer going to the meetings headed by Caló.
Massa is the front-runner according to polls ahead of the leading FpV candidate, Lomas de Zamora Mayor Martín Insaurralde. Meanwhile Moyano, who has established his own political party, is backing the Lower House ticket headed in Buenos Aires province by Francisco de Narváez, a centre-right Peronist.
Moyano did some muscle flexing of his own on Friday when he announced a 24-hour teamsters strike for Monday. A teamsters strike, and the demonstration in Plaza de Mayo, could have a crippling effect on everyday life and put the public in a bad mood because the protest could halt the collection of garbage and the supply of cash in ATMs.
Tuesday is a national holiday to mark Independence Day so the garbage could pile up in the metropolitan area for two days. Moyano has called the strike to protest income tax on wages. Moyano yesterday said the walkout is specifically to express rage at Fernández de Kirchner and her income tax policy. The president, who is not used to sharing a slice of her power with the unions in exchange for support as is Peronist tradition, on Thursday said that she will not tolerate “extortion” from organized labour.
Moyano has been sly enough to call the strike not to demand wage increases for the teamsters (he has already signed a hike increase) but to complain about unpopular taxes, which are also hitting other workers.
Argentina could be in a state of agitation after the teamsters strike.
Tomorrow’s walkout will not necessarily help the electoral chances of Moyano’s party. But they could also make the FpV lose ground if there is mayhem.
The trade union unrest only adds to the volatility. Early in the week the national government continued to be on a collision course with the Supreme Court over an alleged investigation by the AFIP tax bureau into the financial affairs of Chief Justice Ricardo Lorenzetti. The Supreme Court has already ruled against a government-sponsored law that allowed for the popular election of Magistrates Council members.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday asked Attorney General Alejandra Gils Carbó for her say on the government-sponsored Media Law, which is currently frozen due to an injunction filed by the media group Clarín. The Supreme Court must rule on the Media Law. Will that key ruling come before or after the midterm vote in October? The institutional trauma could continue because both AFIP head Ricardo Echegaray and the Supreme Court are on the verge of formally accusing each other of messing with the business of another branch of power.
It is in this context, with rife speculation about pressure from AFIP, that the Supreme Court must deal with the Media Law.
Things will be different after the elections. Massa’s bid is that he will usher in the post-Kirchnerite era. But the catch is that for this to happen the Kirchnerites who vote for the FpV must be convinced that their time is up.
That will only be the case if Massa carries Buenos Aires province in October. Massa holds the lead, but he is up against two machines: the national governments’ and that of Buenos Aires Governor Daniel Scioli, who has decided to stay in the Victory Front. Scioli, a presidential contender in 2015, now seems determined to use his popularity to support Insaurralde. Scioli sees a presidential rival in Massa.