Buenos Aires, March 11 (NA) — National leaders of the 'hardline' unions from the CGT and CTA on Wednesday supported in Tierra del Fuego the local UOM's demand over the dismissal of more than a hundred workers and announced they will launch their own alternative inflation measurement system, as a counter to the official one from Indec. 'We are not going to allow 140 families to be left to their fate,' they warned about the potential closure of an air conditioning plant in the city of Río Grande. The heads of the UOM, Abel Furlán; of Aceiteros, Daniel Yofra; and of ATE, Rodolfo Aguiar, arrived in the Patagonian province to bring visibility to this labor conflict and also to differentiate themselves from the CGT leadership, which they accuse of passivity in protesting against the policies of the Javier Milei administration. On the other hand, the sector called for a press conference this Friday at 11 AM at the ATE National Headquarters, located at Avenida Belgrano 2527, to announce their own inflation measurement system, which will contrast with the IPC from Indec. Furlán led a press conference with workers from Aires del Sur and referred to the serious labor situation the operators are facing, which —he stated— 'are going through moments of great anguish and uncertainty' due to the lack of clarity about the company's future. At the meeting, the union leader stated that the metalworkers' union will continue to support the struggle plan and demand solutions to guarantee jobs. The conflict arose because the company Aires del Sur is paralyzed and has salary debts, a situation affecting 140 workers who are demanding the payment of their salaries and job continuity. Furlán warned that this is not an isolated case but part of a broader crisis affecting the industry and employment, and that it has a strong precedent with the situation of FATE, the Argentine tire company that last month announced the closure of its plant in San Fernando and the dismissal of more than 900 employees. The three leaders who came from Buenos Aires and head the United Unions Front (FreSu) participated in an assembly at the BGH factory and then in a march at the doors of Aires del Sur, as reconstructed by the Argentine News Agency from union sources. 'From this United Unions Front, we state that dialogue should not be with the bosses or with the Government, but like this: with the workers in the work sectors,' stated Aguiar in turn. And he added: 'We are here, in the south of the country, to send a message to all of Argentina, to warn that this front will be in all the struggles that there are in the country.' Indeed, FreSu aims to get involved in all labor conflicts that may arise in Argentine territory and to show itself active in the defense of workers, distancing itself from the CGT leadership. This is how this sector has been acting since Milei announced the push for the labor reform project, after which FreSu called several strikes and marches to repudiate the initiative and even attributes itself with having made the CGT leadership back down to call for the general strike of last February, which was the fourth in the Milei era. FreSu now promises to follow a packed agenda and increase the number of union organizations in the space. 'Just as Milei does not comply with laws passed by Congress, we are not obligated to comply with a norm that is gross and manifestly unconstitutional.'
