FOTO: SUB.COOP
M O D E E R F N O I UN Y C A R C O M E D AND TO DEFEND OUR RIGHTS
NEW UNIONIEZRESD’ WORK TIONS ORGANAICZAT
In today’s Argentina, you can elect a legislator, a governor or a president... but you cannot elect your union delegate...
Ensuring freedom and union democracy involves: Freedom of organization / the right to form organizations without prior authorization.
Union guarantees / union delegates and
authorities of any organization, not only those with legal status, must have union guardianship*.
Union democracy / every worker may choose to affiliate or not to the union of their choice, with no intervention from their employers or the State.
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The right to collective bargaining /
currently, there are “first rate’’ organizations with legal status awarded by the State, which can defend and represent the individual and collective interest of workers before the State and the Employers, and “second rate’’ enrolled unions which can only represent their members. For “recognized’’ organizations, the law ensures exclusivity.
* Union guardianship: No worker who tries to organize or who represents a union organization (with or without legal union status) can be fired, suspended, nor his or her working conditions may be modified.
The right to strike / this right may be exercised by all workers and can be called upon by any union. The Ministry of Labor has no right to declare a strike illegal...
In our country... There are 17.608.144 active workers, out of which 2.302.529 (13%) are young workers. 8.152.326 are legal workers, 8.714.935 are in precarious conditions (52%), and 1.267.786 are unemployed (7,2%).* According to official information, only 14,5% of private companies have workers with
representation in their workplace.
More than 3565 workers’ organizations are still waiting for their legal union status, which will allow them to engage in bargaining negotiations with their employers. There are only 1608 unions with legal status.
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In more than 80% of private companies, no union delegates are elected. More than 75% of workers are not unionized. In 2012, almost a third of the conflicts had no representation by a union with legal status. Law 23.551, which currently regulates union activity in Argentina, is an obstacle for free workers’ organization and lays the groundwork for continued authoritarianism and corruption when discussing salary increases, working conditions and workers’ projects. * This includes: non-registered workers, the unemployed, family workers,
wage-earning workers with a set date for the termination of their contract, or who earn less than minimum wage. Data from the 4th quarter of 2012 according to EPH-INDEC.
The lives of millions of workers in the country are at stake; these workers, with their effort and physical strength, endure the reality of an unfair and authoritarian system on a daily basis. This poses a risk for their future and that of their families.
Why do we need a different law?
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s workers spend at least a third of our lives at our jobs, where we produce goods and services and provide our input for society. For this reason, we deserve to receive a dignified income and good working and health conditions. To that end, we have always ensured the organization of unions to guarantee these rights. But it hasn’t been easy: most of the time, employers and companies try to find the way to isolate and drive out our attempts to organize. And they do so with the support of a legal “system”, which proves authoritarian and unfair.
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Our country has the Union Association Act (Nº 23.551) in force. This law is a true obstacle in the road to achieving better working conditions. This law: a) Is completely outdated, and does not consider the true reality of workers: an environment of precarity and employment instability. b) Obstructs and even hinders free union organization in the workplace.
c) Promotes and enables authoritarianism, the power monopoly* of certain unions and the growth of the socalled corporate unionization. d) Contradicts the Argentine Constitution which establishes the right to “free and democratic union organization”.
How does this take place? Law Nº 23.551 defines the concept of “Legal Union Status” (awarded by the Ministry of Labor) which, in practice, is used as a filter to discredit and discourage all attempts to organize unions in the workplace. This way, they avoid pluralism and freedom, and favor authoritarian processes focused on the very few organizations with effective accreditation (awarded by the State) to represent workers. On a daily basis, when we try to organize in the workplace, we run the risk of being terminated, and we realize it is practically impossible for the group to be acknowledged in the negotiations. Therefore, we are forced to integrate into another organization, where decisions are made without our involvement.
* Power monopoly: there can only be one union per work sector. For example, in transportation, the UTA (Tramway and Automotive Union) has Legal union Status and the UCRA (Drivers’ Union of the Argentine Republic) is not recognized. Technically, this type of regime is called “uniqueness promoted by the law” and grants monopoly of representation to unions with legal status. This endows them with a series of ‘privileges’, which results in all other unions being considered ‘’non-unions’’.
Law 23.551 discriminates and does not guarantee the rights provided by the Constitution.
It does not include precarious workers, informal
employment, self-employment or the unemployed in its text. It allows “legally recognized” authorities to sign
agreements without conferring with others, and discuss measures that affect workers who are not affiliated to their organization. It legalizes certain contributions from
corporations, which end up being “bribes in disguise’’ for unions. It attempts to regulate aspects of the unions and the
choice of delegates, issues that are very different in every place and that must be solved by workers. It buries union organizations in bureaucratic
requirements (in order to be elected Secretary General of a union, there are more requirements than to become the Nation’s President).
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his Law and its results have already been profoundly questioned internationally (both by the International Labor Organization and by control bodies of the International Pact for economic, social and cultural rights, and through different rulings of the Supreme Court (ATE 1 in 2008; Rossi, in 2009; and ATE 2, in 2013), and several of its articles have been declared “unconstitutional� in different conflicts.
So far, attempts to democratize work in private companies have failed. The democratic winds have not yet blown in this environment.
Fact: 84.3% of private corporations in Argentina do not allow the election of union delegates.
Only unity in unions, not uniqueness, strengthens the participation of workers to defend their labor, social and political rights.
Numbers speak for themselves
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n our country, registered workers account for 50% of the workforce. 34.5%* of wage-earners are off the books.
Also, 30% of workers are over-employed, meaning they work more than 45 hours weekly. The case of young workers is particularly grave: 19.7% of female workers under 29 and 13.9% of male workers of the same age are unemployed. These percentages account for twice the level of unemployment of all other workers. Within this scenario of precarization, overexploitation and instability, in Argentina there are only 1608 unions with legal status, while more than 3565 are still awaiting validation (1565 are only, enrolled).
7 Precarious workforce by modality
Source: IPyPP based on EPH-INDEC
Young workers 18-24 and total population. 4th quarter 2012 Total workforce Precarious workforce due to no contract or precarious modality Unemployed Non-registered wage-earners Family workers Registered wage earners whit set date for termination of contract Precarious income (earnings below minimum wage)
Self employed Registered wage-earners (permanents) * EPH-INDEC data - 2Q 2013.
Young workers Población total Number % Number % 2.268.810 100,0% 16.775.505 100,0% 1.748.703 77,1% 8.714.935 52,0% 1.442.992 63,6% 5.852.124 34,9% 382.833 16,9% 1.201.976 7,2% 994.613 43,8% 4.274.695 25,5% 13.210 0,6% 97.274 0,6% 52.337
2,3%
278.180
1,7%
305.711 13,5% 2.862.810 17,1% 116.931 5,2% 1.625.127 9,7% 188.779 8,3% 1.237.684 7,4%
LAW 23.551
An internationally challenged law
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he ILO (International Labor Organization), was founded in 1919, and proclaimed from the very beginning the principle of “Freedom of Association”. In 1948, the International Labor Conference adopted Convention Nº 87 on Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organize Convention, which Argentina ratified in 1960. These concepts were included in our Constitution (initially in 1853, but also enriched with article 37, sub-section 10 of the Constitution of 1949 and 1957, which establishes “free and democratic union association, recognized by simple enrollment in a special registry” in article 14 bis). These rights are thereby affirmed; for this reason, the ILO has pointed out on sixteen occasions the deficiencies of the current Law, stating that the system of “union legal status’’ set forth by the State is being used to create obstacles for union organization and to privilege certain structures, in detriment of other types of representation and of every workers’ right to organize as they see fit.
A historical struggle
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s workers, we have promoted and struggled for the transformation of this reality. The Confederation of Argentine Workers (CTA) is a result of this process in the country, as an attempt to represent the new reality of the working class. However, other initiatives have been proposed to ensure union organization, such as the Protection of the Right of Association Bill (presented by legislator Alberto Piccinini) or the Guarantee of the Right of Association and Union Organization Bill (by legislator Claudio Lozano). But it is certainly not enough to extend or modify legal guarantees without modifying the representation system. Today, there are two systems co-existing: a formal one, for unions with legal status, and a de facto one, born intrinsically form workers, which question it and aim at achieving genuine representation that will reflect collective will. This is why we have reached a time in which it becomes necessary to engage in a profound debate and develop a new model of union organization.
In response to that need, we developed a Unionized Workers Bill, representative of this reality and proposing specific tools to transform it.
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A different law is possible
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he new Unionized Workers Act is based on a series of important issues and specific proposals:
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Every woman and every man is a worker
Our Law includes every worker, not only those working legally. The new Law includes all active salaried workers, whether the work relationship is recognized or not by the law or the public administration as legal subordination; the unemployed; workers not registered in the social security system; recipients or beneficiaries of the pension or assistance system, public or private, national, provincial or municipal; self-employed or independent workers, as long as they do not employ other workers; those who work from home, with or without economic subordination; those who work from home and receive a salary in exchange for their work; and collective self-employed workers. By covering all these issues, the new law considers the actual situation of all workers, regardless of their employment status.
2 Any woman or man may be elected
union leader by their fellow workers
As opposed to Law Nº 23551, which establishes stricter requirements to become Secretary General than to become the Nation’s President, our Law provides that any person can be elected union leader if they have the support of his or her fellow workers.
3 Workers are in charge of recognizing
their organizations, and the State only keeps a record of them
Our project annuls the system of “Legal Union Status”. By implementing this Law, the role of the State is reduced to keeping a record of Workers’ Organizations, in which any union or workers’ group can enroll, with a list of affiliates and corresponding by-laws. After the enrollment process, the group is immediately authorized to participate in salary bargaining and working conditions negotiations. Based on the number of affiliates and their insertion in the workplace, their role in the negotiation of each conflict will vary, always respecting the principle of most representative entity.
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No union leader can be an employer
Our Law establishes that the person that is to become a union leader must have no workers under economic dependency, and shall not own a profit-making organization or private company.
5 Signature of Agreements:
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Whatever we may enjoy or suffer from, we only approve together as a whole
With the approval of this law, workers will not only approve the terms of reference for discussing Collective Work Agreements; leaders must also have any document bearing their legal signature approved by the higher union deliberative bodies. The power of the “Pen” is enough”.
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Enough “bribes” disguised as contributionss
The bill we are promoting forbids employers and companies from financing unions through mandatory discounts or imposed “solidarity contributions’’, since this is a form of corruption that has fostered bureaucratization in Argentine unions. For that reason we demand that workers’ organizations be supported by the contribution of workers and by the achievements of their struggle.
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The mediator in our conflicts must be independent
With this new law, all representation conflicts (between unions or within a union itself) will be handled by an independent body. For that reason, it will be the Labor Laws (and not the Ministry, as is the case now) that will have precedence, so that the decision is not manipulated to fit an imposed governability model.
The aim of the project is that the Ministry of Labor ceases to impose discipline, turning workers’ independence into dependency on the government.
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www.xnuevaleysindical.org
NEW ED
UNIONIEZRS’ WORK ATIONS ORGANAIZCT
To read the full text of the draft law, to provide your input or tell us about your experience in union organization, look us up on the web.
www.xnuevaleysindical.org
Young workers:
a growing reality, in the search for a new direction
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oung workers are at the core of new union organizations in Argentina. In the country, the economically active population includes 17,496,867 workers, out of which 13% are young workers between 18 and 24. In total, they are 2,287,978. But beware; this sector is the most affected by precarization, unemployment and underemployment.
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operative knowledge and 90.4% for unqualified personnel. Altogether, this accounts for almost a fourth of the young workforce.
77.1% of young workers must endure some type of work precarity. This translates into 1,750,000 people, ages 18 to 24. Work precarity, due the type of contract conditions or because of income, affects about 52% of workers, and this phenomenon is worsened when it comes to the younger generations.
Also, the number of young people who look for a job but cannot find one is more than twice than the unemployment rate for the total population (16.7% vs. 6.9%). This means that of the 2.3 million young workers looking for a job, nearly 400 thousand do not get one.
Young workers earn 34.1% less than the average employed population. Specifically, 11.8% of the young workforce is employed in commercial activities, with a strong percentage working as “telemarketers” but also as hosts/hostesses, street vendors, etc. We can also mention job positions, telephone corporations. Major construction companies are also significant young workforce employers, with informality rates that rise up to 77% when it comes to young workers with some
This reality is further worsened when any attempt by young workers to organize as unions in the workplace is obstructed. A sector that should be encouraged to develop professionally and achieve its goals ends up being “cannon fodder’’ in an unfair, authoritarian productive structure, supported by a legislation that wants to stop workers from organizing associated with laying networks or telephone cables for privatized public utility companies such as gas or water distributors, or large.
A Law that considers the different realities of the universe of work, and protects, strengthens and encourages union organization.
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Joining forces for union freedom
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he Unionized Workers Bill is an urgent need for millions of Argentineans. More than 30 years after the return of democracy, in thousands of corporations and companies workers still cannot elect their own union leaders among their fellow workers. If we are not fully free in our own workplace we are not fully free as citizens.
In order to solve these specific problems, including salary, working conditions, health and safety, training and labor stability, it is paramount to maximize workers’ participation; to achieve this, we must move forward with a legislation that protects, strengthens and encourages union organization.
Let us discuss this project in the workplace. Let us organize and collaborate for the continuity of this debate.
The Power is in all of us.
NEW
’ S R E K R O W D E Z I UNION T C A S N O I T A Z I N A ORG PHOTO: MARTÍN BRUNAS
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UNION FREEDOMRAC Y OC AND DEM D OUR TO DEFEN RIGHTS
Public Hearing in the National Congress, in which National Legislator Víctor De Gennaro (Unidad Popular) presented the draft Law together with CTA Secretary general Pablo Micheli, Horacio Meguira (director of the Legal Department of the Confederation) and Julio Fuentes (ATE Secretary General).
www.xnuevaleysindical.org