Buenos Aires, March 6 (NA) – The general secretary of the Argentine Republic's Merchant Seamen's Union (SICONARA), Mariano Vilar, stated at the PescAR Forum that regarding labor reform, 'modernization must be oriented towards productive development, not towards taking rights away from workers.' The event, held in the coastal city of Chubut province, has become one of the main spaces for debate and analysis on the present and future of the national fishing industry. The panel in which the SICONARA leader participated also included Pablo Trueba, general secretary of Si.Ma.Pe., and Jorge Frías, general secretary of Fishing Captains, moderated by economist Hernán Letcher. The PescAR Forum brings together business, union, academic, and governmental sector leaders. Its mission is to address the strategic challenges of the fishing industry in an economic and productive context that demands dialogue, planning, and public policies aimed at developing the activity with inclusion and Argentine labor. On behalf of the union, Vilar spoke about the situation of embarked workers, the defense of labor rights, and the challenges the sector faces in the current productive context. Vilar referred to the current debates around labor reform and the need to orient any modernization process towards strengthening productive activity and protecting employment. 'Modernization must be aimed at increasing productivity and promoting fishing development. This is possible because we have qualified personnel and because the business side bet, invested, modernized vessels and plants, and increased freezing capacity. That is the modernization we need,' he stated. Likewise, the union leader emphasized that the debate on changes to labor legislation must be conducted responsibly, preserving the rights conquered by workers. 'We must invest in productive development and innovation, not in leaving someone unemployed under the false assumption that there are too many embarked workers. So they talk about modernization, but what is proposed is to go back more than 60 years in labor rights,' he clarified. Finally, Vilar expressed the union's objections to the recent modification of the Navigation Law and the Chubut Provincial Fishing Law, questioning the lack of consultation with sectoral guild organizations. 'The Provincial Fishing Law has been modified and we have an important objection. In this room, we heard many speakers talk about updating collective agreements and labor laws, but from the business sector, something else was promoted: removing maritime personnel from the Labor Contract Law and incorporating them into the Navigation Law, which says nothing about working conditions on board.' Labor Contract Law Subsequently, he explained that the Labor Contract Law has been modified on numerous occasions to adapt to new realities, while other norms that are intended to be used as replacements have remained practically unchanged for decades. 'The Labor Contract Law is from 1974 and was modified by different governments, incorporating changes in licenses and working conditions. It is very good to advance with measures like the clean record, but the question we ask, and for which we were not even consulted, is what happens to the workers if a fishing vessel's permit is revoked due to an employer's breach. Are we going to leave an entire crew unemployed because of an employer's offense?' he posed the question. 'There are many things on the table for discussion and we are willing to sit down to debate, but taking care of what we have,' he added. During his speech, the head of SICONARA also questioned the proposal pushed by business sectors to exclude maritime workers from the Labor Contract Law. 'We must differentiate what is said from what is done. In contrast, the Navigation Law is from 1973 and has barely been modified since then. The excellent campaign of freezer trawlers is an example of this, as the same two people who used to freeze 30 tons now freeze over 100 tons.'
