Lustramax Plant Conflict: Workers Protest Layoffs and Unpaid Wages

The Guarantees Court 4 of San Martín did not issue the eviction order, as reported. According to union representatives, the labor conflict will continue until the company complies with the ministerial resolution and regularizes its obligations with the staff. The short-lived blockades aim to show that the company must comply with the mandatory conciliation dictated by the Buenos Aires Ministry of Labor. The measure affects the firm dedicated to the distribution of stationery, disposable items, cleaning and hygiene, and comes after the dismissal of at least 15 employees, including delegates and union activists, and the claim for the payment of bonuses, salaries, and owed bonuses. Following the complaint about the conflict, the Ministry of Labor ordered the immediate reinstatement of the dismissed and ordered to reverse the labor situation to January 9. "The company is in a preventive crisis procedure trying not to close and be able to maintain most of the jobs. However, according to workers, the company rejected the resolution and notified that it will not comply with it. Faced with this response, the employees maintain the state of permanent assembly and have called for new force measures until compliance with the provisions of the labor authority is obtained. Leandro Gómez, union delegate of the company, indicated that the objective is to generate instances of dialogue with Lustramax so that the company complies with the union demands. Gómez indicated that the participation included employees from different shifts, family members, and workers from other companies: "The idea is that someone from some body approaches and calls a meeting to be able to unblock the situation," he stated this Tuesday in statements to AM 750. The workers denounce that the company carried out the dismissals after presenting a Preventive Crisis Procedure (PPC), and accuse the firm of promoting a 'boss plan to advance on 29 jobs', added to situations of alleged union persecution and police intimidation. They also state that the company uses as an argument a supposed internal crisis derived from corporate conflicts, although, according to Gómez, 'sales did not fall' and 'the last three years of balances gave them positive'. In the statement issued by the board of delegates, the reversal of the dismissals, the regularization of contributions to the social work, the payment of the year-end bonus, and the fulfillment of basic labor rights are demanded. The delegates, who are referenced in the PTS that integrates the Left Front (FIT-U), link the situation to the changes promoted by the government of Javier Milei in terms of labor reform, pointing out that the company 'takes advantage of the advance' of these initiatives to 'cut basic rights'. 'At the door of the Lustramax plant, the company announced that it is going to fail to comply with the mandatory conciliation dictated by the justice. It is the second traffic cut that the protesters are promoting this week. The protest also received support from the networks of national deputy of the FIT, Myriam Bregman, and other leaders of the coalition. From social networks, lawyer María Florencia Arietto questioned Bregman and Nicolás del Caño for showing solidarity with the conflict and trying to 'sink the Lustramax company'. The commerce union, the Ministry of Labor of the province, and the police are working together with the company to be able to work. The workers continue to remain in the factory,' stated Luca Bonfante, PTS militant and former candidate for legislator of the city. That is, the employer is violating the Law. Accompanied by left-wing groups, Lustramax workers carried out a total cut of the Panamerican highway at the height of km. That is 200 families.