All subte lines are back in service today, following another strike yesterday, which caused a big incident between two unions UTA and AGTSyP.  Today AGTSyP members will meet up to discuss the future ‘plan of the battle’ and strategies.

Roberto Pianelli, AGTSyP general secretary, announced that the rotative strike “generates a bigger cost to Metrovías rather than discounting salaries of union workers for the 10 days of strike in August.” Having said this, he declared that the “conflict could be suspended” only if the demand for workers to give 1% of their wages to the UTA is reversed, as well as the wages’ discount for the August strike.

Pianelli considered the previous rotative strikes as ‘effective’, admiting that it was ‘not nice’ to stop the transport and cause problems for the passengers. Regarding to subte operator Metrovías, he explained, “the company looses more than 500,000 pesos per day with rotative strikes.”

Pianelli doesn’t exclude the possibility of a new strike on 13 December, in case the bill about subte transfer to the city government control passes.

The City’s Labour Undersecretary established a mandatory conciliation this morning to solve the conflict that broke out between rival subte unions UTA and AGTSyP today.

Early this morning, two groups of subte workers clashed at the Congreso de Tucumán station on the D line. The incidents started as one of the groups wanted to start working as usual, whilst the other one supported the strike that the AGTSyP has been carrying out since Thursday. As a result of the clashes, UTA called a strike and all services were suspended, although the D and E line trains were running between Catedral and José Hernández, and between Bolívar and Av. La Plata, respectively.

The mandatory conciliation was established as a consequence of UTA’s strike, and a meeting has been scheduled for 1pm to try and resolve the conflict. It is expected that the meeting will be attended by delegates from both unions, as well as city government representatives.

Néstor Segovia, spokesman for AGTSyP, stated that his union will not accept the mandatory conciliation. “We will continue with our strike all week. We will not accept the conciliation,” he said.

AGTSyP’s strike will use the same methodology of partial service cancellations that they started implementing last week. The schedule of cancellations for today is:

5 to 8am – Line D

8 to 11am – Line A

11am to 2pm – Line H

2 to 5pm – Line C

5 to 8pm – Line E and Premetro

8 to 11pm – Line B

Buenos Aires subte workers announced a strike to take place tomorrow Thursday, as they could not reach an agreement regarding wage increases.

The metrodelegados (as the subte workers’ union representatives are known) indicated that the strike will be affect all six lines, though not at the same time. It will take place in 3-hour shifts as per the following schedule:

- Line B:  5 to 8 am.

- Line H: 8 to 11 am.

- Line A: 11 am to 2 pm.

- Line D: 2 to 5 pm.

- Line E: 5 to 8 pm.

- Line C: 8 to 11 pm.

Union representatives from the Association of Subte and Premetro Workers (AGTSyP) held a meeting with representatives from subte operator Metrovías at the offices of the city’s Labour Undersecretariat this afternoon. Upon leaving the meeting, AGTSyP general secretary Roberto Pianelli announced that they had not reached an agreement, though “they were pretty close”.

Rival union UTA did sign an agreement with Metrovías. Its secretary general, Roberto Fernández, stated that they obtained a “readjustment of $4,000 for the most senior workers and of $2,500 for those of lower categories, which is going to be paid in three installments and which we had agreed on in August.”

Buenos Aires Labour Undersecretary, Ezequiel Sabor, told the press that “UTA signed the agreement”, by which “all underground workers, whether they are union members or not, will get a 23% wage increase from March (of this year).” AGTSyP rejected the agreement signed by UTA, calling it “a step backwards”.

The executive committee Association of Subte and Premetro Workers (AGTSyP), promised today there will be no stop in traffic tomorrow, but warns for disruptions this week due to a planned strike.

The workers claim “a salary increase of 28% and an improved escalating increase for long-term employees: all retrospective to last March, when the joint negotiations were successful,” said the Subte delegates to justify “a strike during this week.”

The possibility of the strike was announced on Thursday by the general secretary of the AGTSyP, Roberto Pianelli, who was frustrated after a meeting with the company Metrovías during joint negotiations.

The strike will be definite if the upcoming meeting and continued negotiations tomorrow with the Buenos Aires’ Labour Undersecretary result unsuccessful for the workers. “It would mean another stop of parts of, or even all subway lines until an agreement has been reached,” the delegates announced. The last Subte union strike resulted in a 10-day paralysation of the city in August earlier this year.

The subte strike that affected millions of commuters in the city of Buenos Aires since Friday 3rd August was lifted last night, after the AGTSyP union, private subte operator Metrovías, and the city government reached an agreement regarding working conditions. Subtes started running again at 5am this morning.

After days of fruitless negotiations, AGTSyP (Trade Union of Subte and Premetro Workers) signed a provisional agreement with Metrovías, which includes “improvements in working conditions, changes in leave entitlements, and a re-categorisation of wage levels” according to the union’s press release. The agreement, however, does not include any mention to the demanded wage increases.

“Our wage [increase] has not been solved. We are the only workers who have been waiting for eight months to hold a collective bargaining process, when there are already 1,500 collective bargaining agreements closed in the country,” said AGTSyP secretary-general Roberto Pianelli in a press conference last night.

Last Friday, Metrovías signed another agreement with UTA (Transport Worker’s Union), promising a 23% wage increase for subte workers. However, this is conditional to the city and national governments solving their dispute over control of the subte lines. Buenos Aires mayor Mauricio Macri decided in March not to go ahead with the transfer agreement he had signed with the national government in January, by which the city would take ownership of the contract with Metrovías.

Since then, the transport subsidies the national government transferred to the city – an estimated $124m – have been locked away in a bank account and the city government has refused to withdraw them, claiming it is not their responsibility. During the strike and subsequent negotiations, Metrovías demanded the city government free up those funds to be able to meet the workers’ demands, as well as to operate the service in a safe manner.

AGTSyP was not part of the wage agreement signed by UTA. The latter is the official union, but represents a small percentage of the subte workers. AGTSyP is a breakaway union with majority representation, which is also demanding to be recognised by the government as the genuine representative of the subte workers.

The strike has been suspended for now, and negotiations between the workers and the company will continue. However, the underlying dispute between the city and national government regarding control of the subte has not been solved.

As the subte strike continues into its 10th day, Néstor Segovia, assistant secretary of the Trade Union of Subte and Premetro Workers (AGTSyP), said there is a “light of hope” in the conflict. Segovia told media he sees the possibility of there being a resolution to the strike by the end of the day.

Segovia also says there is the possibility of a truce, so long as workers receive positive responses to their demands.

In the longest subte strike in Argentina’s history, which has shut down services to the city’s six lines, workers are asking for a 28% pay increase and better working conditions. Roberto Pianelli, secretary-general of AGTSyP, said workers were willing to discard the wage negotiation issue, so long as working conditions were addressed.

On Saturday, the City government announced compulsory conciliation, a $5m fine for the union, and a lawsuit threat. AGTSyP rejected the conciliation and fine.

The subte strike has affected some 900,000 of the city’s commuters who use the subte each day.

Buenos Aires City Mayor Mauricio Macri said he saw “no way out” of the subte conflict, and because the union has close ties with the national government, said the strike is an attack on the City.

As the subte strike continues, passengers continue to experience long waits for buses that hardly seem to come, while commuters sit in traffic jams that extend for kilometres.

The strike has been on-going since 9 pm Friday, when subte workers stopped offering service on all six subte lines and the Premetro. An estimated 1 million people are said to have been affected.

Subte workers are demanding salary increases and better working conditions and since the conflict has still not been resolved, workers have threatened to continue the strike for another 24 hours.

Meanwhile, federal government officials have continued to criticise the city for the disruption and for its failure to come to an agreement with the Association of Subte Workers and Premetro (AGTSyP).

Starting at 2 pm today, there will be a meeting between representatives from the city, the national government, the subte union and Metrovías in the administrative court of Laura Barreiro.

Speaking to Radio Continental, one delegate from AGTSyP said, “Someone has to raise their hand and say ‘we take responsibility to solve the problem.’ If no one calls us, we continue with the strike tomorrow.”

Subte union workers are promising an “indefinite strike” if their wage-demands and service improvements are not met soon.

As passengers boarded the underground trains for free this morning between 9 and 11, news of further protests hit Argentine airwaves. In a press briefing,  deputy secretary of the Association of Subte Workers and Premetro (AGTSyP) Néstor Segovia announced that turnstiles would be lifted again on Thursday from 11:00 to 16:00.

Segovia told reporters that union participation in negotiations “depends on the city government taking charge of the management underground.”

The workers are calling for a wage increase of 28 percent, and “investments in training, stations and tracks”.

He added that the national government provides $360 million per year on behalf of the government of Buenos Aires, but Macri has “turned a deaf ear” to managing the  city.

“Customers and employees were held hostage by this situation,” Segovia said, as reported by Télam. “They robbed the users from better service, and now are robbing the workers.”

La Nacion reported that the deputy worried the Subte was heading for an eventual tragedy similar to that of Once, calling the state of service a “time bomb”.

“Right now, the Subte is not [in the hands of] the national government, or Macri’s, which has never happened in the history of service,” he said. “The workers are worried, because they want management.”

The workers on the Buenos Aires Subte are today carrying out a strike between 5pm and 7pm. Service will continue as normal but the barriers will be open and passengers will be able to travel for free.

All six lines will take part in the protest although a few barriers will keep working: Plaza de Mayo and Peru on Line A, Leandro N. Alem and Florida on Line B, Retiro on line C, Catedral on Line D, Bolívar and Entre Ríos on Line E and Corrientes on Line H.

The Union Association of Underground and Tram Workers (AGTSyP) are embroiled in a row with the city of Buenos Aires over pay and the civic government is refusing to negotiate.

“(This is because of) The childish attitude of the head of the city of Buenos Aires government, Mauricio Macri, for not wanting to take control of the subte and acting in an irresponsible way,” the secretary general of AGTSyP, Roberto Pianelli, said, “and now a crisis is beginning where Metrovías says that it doesn’t have any money, they are delaying our salary payments and there is no material for maintenance and security.”

After this morning’s three-hour strike that again paralysed the Buenos Aires subte system, union leaders, specifically from the Association of Subway Workers and Premetro (AGTsyP), still await conciliation with Metrovías and the Ministry of Labour.

“Unfortunately, we have to report that [Metrovías] still has not called us, nor the Ministry of Labour,” said Nestor Segovia, the union representative for subte line C, which has been completely out of service.

Despite the compulsory conciliation process ordered by the Ministry of Labour, there has been no discussion yet to reconcile the demands of the union.

Among these demands are a 28% salary increase and better conditions of labour, including greater investment in roads, units, and stations that would improve function and safety.

Segovia further said that Metrovías had precipitated “a cascade of conflicts” around the subtes and that “neither they nor the Ministry care about the situation.”

The Auto Transport Union (UTA), for its part, has rejected the work stoppage, calling it “a disgrace” and urging formal measures to address the demands of transport workers, as well as sanctions against the strikers.