Workers at Argentina's largest media group rally to save 380 jobs from outsourcing.

[tenorly]

An estimated 380 print workers at the Rioplatense Graphic Arts (AGR) plant in Buenos Aires organized a cultural festival as part of a series of protests that began after they were locked out of their jobs this week by its parent company, the Clarín Group.

The employees, who occupied the plant on Monday, were violently - but unsuccessfully - repressed by the Federal Police on Tuesday and Wednesday; numerous workers were injured with rubber bullets, including some to the head. Print Workers Union (FGB) delegate Pablo Viñas described the police offensive as "an ambush ordered while we were meeting at the Labor Ministry's Bureau of Labor Relations."

Police were later revealed to be spying on the workers occupying the plant from news vans supplied by the Clarín Group itself.

Viñas blamed Security Minister Patricia Bullrich, part of the right-wing Mauricio Macri administration, for these actions, pointing out that she had been informed of the decision to shutter the plant before the employees themselves were locked out on Monday morning.

The dispute intensified further on Thursday after the Labor Ministry refused to grant a compulsory conciliation order despite Argentine labor law provisions that require it in cases where an employer, save for bankruptcies, is shedding 15% of its work force or more. The Clarín Group, moreover, owes AGR employees two weeks' back pay.

Representatives of the Clarín Group, Argentina's largest media conglomerate, stated that the plant, which produces books and special publications for the group, was being closed in response to growing losses, which reached 118 million pesos ($8 million) in the first nine months of 2016.

Viñas, however, believes the media group seeks to replace the 380 union jobs at the plant with unregistered workers at far lower wages and without the social security and health insurance costs a unionized workforce implies.

The Clarín Group, which controls nearly half the media and cable market in Argentina as well as a fourth of its broadband, reported a net income of $330 million on $3 billion in sales during 2015 and remained similarly profitable in 2016 despite a sharp recession. The group benefited from a media market deregulation decree signed by President Macri days after taking office 13 months ago, as well as from an anti-trust waiver that allowed the group to acquire mobile phone carrier Nextel Argentina in June.

The group's media outlets were staunch supporters of Macri's 2015 bid for the presidency, which he narrowly won. One of Macri's most vocal critics, the 88-year-old leader of the human rights group Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo, Hebe de Bonafini, called for support for the AGR staff "because you might be next."

At: https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&js=y&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.pagina12.com.ar%2F15176-masiva-marcha-de-apoyo-a-los-despedidos-de-agr&edit-text=&act=url

[Judi Lynn]

1. Clarn whitewashed the Dirty War, served to spread the dictatorship's propaganda,

the owner was celebrated, feted by the leaders of the murderous leadership for years, and when the country was finally on the right track with progressive leaders, Clarín fought them like a pack of Tasmanian Devils.

Now all is right again in their fascist universe, and it appears they are hard at work putting down any dissent everywhere.

The fact Clarín could enlist the police department to spy on its own employees, and they would even hide inside a Clarín truck to do it seems so crooked that it tells us things are really dirty there all over again, for the moment.

Being able to arrange "outsourcing" within the country, using immigrants, while trying to fire their own perfectly good, loyal employees is taking it a step beyond anything I've ever read, yet.

[center]

Ernestina Herrera de Noble, Clarín owner, being toasted by Jorge Rafael Videela, Dirty War dictator of Argentina





Ernestina Herrera de Noble, head of "El Gran Monopolio"[/center]
Maybe it's good to think of these days as being closer to the end of the looming dictatorship!

Thank you, tenorly.

[tenorly]

2. From the depths of the Dirty War in 1978. Why, even she looked terrified.

I found your last phrase very prescient, Judi. It happens to be almost exactly what the AGR workers use as a fight song:

Se va a acabar; se va a morir; la dictadura de Clarín ('It will end; it'll be done in; this dictatorship by Clarín').

It really is a shame, what they've become - and believe it or not they weren't always this bad. They were for many years a moderate voice, even during the dictatorship. It was a winning formula, one developed by its founder Roberto Noble (who married Ernestina after wrecking his first marriage by having an affair with the very Ernestina).

Many in Argentina agree that Clarín began its decline when Noble died in 1969, leaving control to his new wife under suspicious circumstances (it's generally believed her lawyer had him sign a new will while he was sedated on his deathbed). Clarín didn't take its sharp turn to the right until 2008 though, after Néstor Kirchner denied them approval for entry into the mobile phone market.

Their support for Macri ultimately paid off when he granted them said approval within days of taking office - and by decree. Favors need to be repaid after all.

[Judi Lynn]

3. Great sentiment they've cultivated. Sure hope it won't be forever 'til things go sane again.

Didn't know about hostilities over mobile phones. That does seem like a reach, one would think, for a newspaper company.

Did know they had cornered the market on Argentina's newsprint which seems incredible, still, if I understand it correctly.

It would be wonderful to see a new leader start coming into view gradually, in time to be recognized before the next election, in case the last candidate, Daniel Scioli, decides not to run again.

I'll bet there so many people already who regret their votes for Macri.