Emboldened by its resounding election victory on Sunday, the government is accelerating the labor reform and plans to debate it in extraordinary sessions with the new composition of Congress. This will take place as the final meeting of the Mayo Council, scheduled for between November 20 and 27, approaches.
Meanwhile, the CGT (General Confederation of Labour) took the libertarian party's unexpected electoral success as a cold shower and now faces the challenge of trying to resist or soften the reform against a government in a much stronger position. The government now has larger blocs of deputies and senators than was thought before the elections.
Until now, the labor union had been participating in the Mayo Council meetings through one of its leaders from the 'minority wing', the head of the UOCRA (Union of Construction Workers), Gerardo Martínez. However, he warned last week that 'the so-called labor reform promoted by the National Government as a solution to all the ills our country has accumulated in economic matters is nothing more than the ratification of Decree 70/23 in its labor chapter. This decision was made without consultation and was duly rejected by the CGT and successfully challenged in court by our central union body'.
In this context, the CGT had predicted that after the recent elections, the government of Milei would be hit by a defeat and would have little left to fight for a labor reform.
The CGT's own co-secretary general, Héctor Daer, said as much at the recent October 17 rally: 'To transfer the rights of workers to the capital sector... to afford that luxury, they will have to win the elections very well, and I believe that on the 26th, Peronism will win,' he stated.
Now, following LLA's stunning upset, one of the first CGT leaders to speak out was also national deputy Mario 'Paco' Manrique, who belongs to the CGT's most Kirchnerist wing, which is distant from the majority dialogist group that holds strong sway in the central leadership.
In this regard, the SMATA (Automotive Workers' Union) leader called for the CGT to adopt a 'firm and resolute' stance against such initiatives and demanded that the leadership 'stop looking for friends in power to focus on its true objective, which is the defense of workers'.
As things stand, a final heated meeting of the Mayo Council is expected to take place in three weeks at the Casa Rosada (the Pink House). By December, the projects arising from this body, including the labor reform bill, must be sent to Congress.
