A woman checks out the notice of the Subte strike which will affect all six lines. (Photo: Beatrice Murch)

It is confirmed that there will be no subways running this weekend. The general secretary of the transportation union, Roberto Pianelli, announced that there will be two strikes where the six subte lines and Premetro will not run for five consecutive days.

Starting Friday at 9pm, the subway will close and remain out of service for Saturday and Sunday. During the weekend, union representatives will continue discussions over wage increases.

“We will see how the fight turns out,” said Pianelli.

The strike comes after earlier discussions this week about salary increases. Pianelli claimed discussions, which started in February, have still not reached a conclusion.

The Union Association of Subte and Premetro Workers (AGTSyP) is requesting that the salaries be increased by 28% as well as an augmentation from 1.3% to 2% for the pension payments.

The head of the UTA, Roberto Fernandez, said that he and other union representatives are ready to stop service as of Monday for a total of 72 hours. Pianelli supposed that the UTA also called a stop-service because of the AGTSyP strike.

The news on salaries for subte workers is awaiting confirmation from the dealings between the national and city governments. As confirmed by the city’s deputy, Maria Eugenia Vidal, the city is waiting for the national government to actualise pending transfers of investments.

According to the secretary of transport, Alejandro Ramos, the conflict will resolve itself once the city mayor, Mauricio Macri, gets more involved and tries to give answers that correspond to the workers demands.

Today, teachers and workers under the UPCN and Fregabba, the Buenos Aires province’s unions of teachers and workers, will strike for 48 hours causing disruptions to classes and other facilities in the province and capital.

The strike means a suspension of classes for the next two days and will also affect hospitals, the courts as well as other provincial procedures. The workers will be marching, which will limit access to parts of both the city and province of Buenos Aires.

The decision was reached after teachers of the Frente Gemial rejected the provincial government’s plan to pay the workers’ midyear bonus in instalments instead of in one payment, a measure proposed by Provincial Governor Danial Scioli last week. The strike also comes after a 48-hour halt to work that happened last week.

The provincial federation of workers (Fegeppba) has also decided to stop work and march for 48 hours starting tomorrow and ending on Saturday. Both movements have officials worried that Scioli will be forced to call an official economic emergency for the province and has them concerned that the conflict will escalate.

Leader of the Provincial ATE Oscar de Isasi believed that Scioli made the decision against judge Luis Arias, who felt the province should pay the bonus at one time.

“The governor is not responding to the reality that 70% of the workers want to receive the whole bonus all at once [as opposed to in instalments],” said Isasi. “Based on [Scioli's decision] we say he is guaranteeing the conflict.”