Workers will go for a “direct action measure” if the government fails to meet unions’ demands for a change in the income tax scheme, Secretary General of the Union of Civil Personnel of the Nation (UPCN) Andrés Rodríguez has warned.
Following yesterday’s meeting with Cabinet Chief Jorge Capitanich, the UPCN – a part of the pro-government splinter of the CGT labour confederation -, raised its voice in workers’ long-standing battle for a change in income tax.
“They did not give us a deadline for an answer, but it must come soon. We don’t want to cloud an international situation the government is going through with holdout creditors,” Rodríguez said alluding to the 1.3 billion dollar legal dispute against vulture funds suing Argentina over its defaulted bonds.
In statements to media this morning, the union leader explained that workers offered the government a “range of possibilities” to settle the income tax battle which both pro and anti-government unions consider a tax on salary.
“If we don’t get a positive answer, I don’t know if there will be a strike, but (we will do consider) direct action measures,” Andrés Rodríguez warned.
In the meantime, head of ministers Capitanich addressed yesterday’s meeting with CGT leaders in his daily brief to the press at the government house today, saying demands by unions “can be intensified” as a result of reasons that are «political» in nature “but not because of the number of (people) affected” by the income tax scheme.
Source: Buenos Aires Herald