Security Force protests that started on Tuesday 2nd October continue this morning with a new petition of demands. After presenting a new petition with ten points last night, the representatives of protesters held a meeting with Secretary of Security Sergio Berni.

Among salary scale demands (a minimum of $7,000) the protesters announced their wish to “incorporate the staff to Labour Risks Insurance (ART) and to have a free choice of social benefits.” Berni promised to answer all complaints by next Tuesday.

Later this morning, the Ministry of Security Nilda Garré issued salary payments to all Gendarmerie agents for the months of August and September. Garré announced the “retirements” of ten Coastguard prefecture generals and ten Gendarmerie general commanders. She then appointed Carlos José Pereyra as General Commander, who replaced Juan Obdulio Sainz, and Andrés Manuel Monzón as a Prefecture General, who will replace Enrique Cingolani until the further notice.

Despite the changes, Naval Prefecture and National Gendarmerie agents decided to continue the protests.

A meeting between union officials and the government to negotiate a new level for the minimum wage was terminated without conclusion earlier today. Negotiations will continue in a second session at 4.30pm.

Workers and officials are hoping to fix a new minimum wage agreement for the annual restructuring conducted by the National Council for Employment. Each year salaries and benefits are considered by the National Council. A dispute is currently raging over the raising of the base salary for public workers.

The meeting began at midday with a session about benefits and the minimum wage and a second session will be held by the wage board at 16.30. Head of the cabinet of the Labour Ministry, Norberto Ciaravino chaired the meeting which was also attended by Pedro Etcheberry and Carlos Raúl de la Vega  from the Chamber of Commerce and Carlos Funes de Rioja, from the Industrial Union of Argentina (UIA). Gerardo Martínez attended from the CGT and Hugo Yasky and Pedro Wasiejko represented Argentina’s other key umbrella union, the CTA.

Notably absent, however, was Hugo Moyano. The leader of the anti government CGT faction explained that he would not be attending the negotiations.

“Why would we offer to go, just to make this even more of a parody” he said today.

“The last agreement wasn’t an agreement, it was an imposition” he said, “the President decided how much the minimum wage should be” said Moyano, in reference to the meeting of the wage board in 2011 when the base rate for salaries was raised to $2,300.

In order to agree a new mimimum wage, workers and government officials must first agree on a poposed figure and then submit it for consideration at the meeting of the wage board later today.

However according to  Funes de Rioja “there is currently a big distance between proposals.”

The government backed figure currently stands at around $2,900 however Moyano is calling for an increase to $3,500.

The debate does not stop with the wage itself however. There are also issues around taxation on the minimum wage. Head of the CTA, Hugo Yasky commented today that “the problem is not the figure that is being debated here, the problem is that the same minimum is paid across the entire country.”

Yasky claimed he would be proposing “a law to make the tax system fairer, which would be welcomed by all argentines.”

Despite the issues, Carlos de la Vega has remained optimistic about the potential for an agreement today, saying this morning “I hope that there will be an agreement today. There is always red tape to get through, and always a few signatures missing, but the important thing is that we are all coming together with the joint desire to reach an agreement.”

The Deputy Secretary of the Trade Union of Subte and Premetro Workers (AGTSyP) has confirmed today that all of its members will strike starting this week in the face of stalled salary negotiations.

Néstor Segovia tweeted that the Ministry of Labour was not listening to the Subte and Premetro worker’s demands, “so let’s stop working,” he wrote. He also tweeted, “[Buenos Aires Mayor Mauricio] Macri is not responding to our requests, so let’s stop.”

In an interview with Infobae, Segovia confirmed that the workers would quit the lines and resume a strike that was suspended in May. He claims that more force is needed in order to implement salary increases.

Segovia said the strikes would start, “today, tomorrow, or Monday,” according to Infobae.

The Union is asking for a 28% increase in wages as well as safer working conditions. This Wednesday marks the deadline for the “truce” agreed upon in May, which put the trains back in motion after ending a strike over multiple days. At the time the union accepted a payment to workers of between $900 and $1,200 and agreed to return to negotiations over a permanent salary increase.

The agreement, however, had been made on a transitional basis since both the national government and the city of Buenos Aires refused to pay Metrovías’ higher subsidies to compensate for wage increases. Both administrations are still discussing who is responsible for the payment.

Caught between the negotiators, Segovia claims the workers have no other option but to use more force in the form of a strike.

Just minutes after Segovia’s announcement, the minister of labour, Carlos Tomada, said the national government would not interfere in what, “is the problem of the Government of the City of Buenos Aires.”

A group of 700 members of the police force have taken over the main communications centre in Misiones, northern Argentina.

The protest began on Tuesday night at 11pm, when 300 policemen broke in to the Comando Radioeléctrico communications centre in Posadas, the capital of Missiones province. More police, including retired members as well as firefighters joined the group as the night went on. The protesters came from all over the province, and family members have been waiting outside in support.

The police are demanding better working conditions, including new uniforms and equipment, and to be unionised. They are also calling for a raise in salaries, protesting for a basic annual wage of two million pesos.

Julio Lezken, the under-Secretary for Security of Misiones, visited the scene and said that an increase of salary “depends on the national collective bargaining talks”.

According to reports, announcements are scheduled for today for the protesting police.