Without escaping the situation and with visible concern, the main representatives of four entities businesswomenkey in the country demonstrated again against the bonus for private workers, defended the parity as a tool to improve income and sent a message to whoever sits in Rivadavia’s chair as of December 10.
The presidents of the Argentine Confederation of Medium Enterprises (CAME), Alfredo Gonzalez; of the Argentine Industrial Union (UIA), Daniel Funes from Rioja; of the Argentine Chamber of Commerce and Services (CAC), Mario Grinman, and the Argentine Rural Society (SRA), Nicolás Pino, participated in the panel “Argentina in the long term, the vision of businessmen” at Expo EFI 2023, which takes place on August 30 and 31, and spoke about the issues that invade the agenda after the announcements of Sergio Massa last Sunday.
A few days before the end of the month, there is still no full certainty about what will happen to the bonus for workers and the discussions between the two political actors (politics and business) continue. The event, which takes place in La Rural, served as a space to expose that “push and pull”.
Criticism from business chambers
The first to speak was Gonzalez, of CAME, who maintained that “the parity It is the tool that private individuals have to try to deal with inflation”. Furthermore, he claimed that the SMEs They are not in a position to pay the bonus that the Government implemented for workers due to the crisis that the sector is experiencing. “Retail sales have been going down for a year. This affects small and medium-sized companies because more than 75% of what is produced is for internal consumption,” he said.
In this sense, Grinman highlighted that “the workers They are intelligent and they know that if the employer is not doing well, they have to sit down and talk.” In turn, he emphasized that “the Government should not interfere in relations between private parties because that generates distortions”.
“The salary issue is not an obstacle. We understand the labor reality and needs. You have to be very careful because not everyone can meet the payment”, added Funes de Rioja and emphasized: “We we believe in equality. For a year and a half we have been talking with the Government so that it does not interfere in them”.
Pino reaffirmed that, from the Rural Society, they cannot afford, as a sector, the payment of that money, beyond the individual situation of each producer. “The reality of agriculture is unknown. An official who claims impose a measure as this one of the bonus does not know the atomization that there is in the agricultural activity”, he pointed out in this regard.
For his part, grinmann, tougher than his peers, stated that the salary “should be as high as possible” and blamed the Government “for taking between 45% and 65%” of the worker’s income. “Obviously, no one disputes that purchasing power has been lostbut the tool is not the correct one”, he opined regarding the implementation of the bonds.
And forcefully, he warned: “That they threaten us is not democracy”. Thus, he referred, in addition to the Government’s demand, to the announcement that was made regarding the sanctioning of those companies that do not comply with the bonus payment willing to their employees.
At your time, Funes de Rioja it also marked a contradiction in the conversations with the ruling party and the General Confederation of Labor (CGT). “We told the Government why the fixed sum was not convenient, the CGT agreed with us and now they support the decree. They were?”, he raised.
On the other hand, the businessmen agreed on the problems that the national economy is going through: contraction in demand, loss of export markets, low energy consumption, lack of confidence and certainty, shortage of spare parts and capital goods (due to import barriers) and Difficulties in replenishing sold stocks.
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The role of politics and a message to 2024
Towards the end of the conference, the four representatives of the business sectors noted that in the short term, the outlook “is complicated” and agreed on the need to “collaborate with governance” and propitiate consensus spaces.
González took the opportunity to send a message to the entire leadership. “It is time for the political arc have a degree of humility and responsibility. Society is demanding that the form be changed, ”she emphasized. And he added that “the problem, more than economic, is political”. Thus, he considered that a consensus and warned that “it is easy to say, but difficult to achieve.”
Meanwhile, for Grinmann, it is necessary to stop “seeking guilty” and he highlighted the “extraordinary” potentialities of Argentina. “I don’t know who is going to have to govern, the only thing I hope is that whoever does it exercises his role with full responsibility and that he knows that there will be a stage of sacrifice. They are going to take tough measures and society is going to resist” advance.
Pino, for his part, affirmed that he would ask the next president to “have the capacity to give back to the people and to Argentines the possibility of recovering the dignity of being able to live in a country that is kind”.
Finally, Funes de Rioja defended private initiative as a key value for Argentine economy. And Grinmann made a call to whoever opposition in 2024 to improve Argentina. “It is not only the responsibility of the president on duty. Whoever has the responsibility of being in the opposition will also have an important role in this sense because no president will be able to capture only the changes that are needed,” he said.
Source: Ambito
