Amid ongoing salary demands from several union sectors, Economy Minister Axel Kicillof today warned that if businessmen accept to give employees a 50 percent salary raise, like some union sectors are demanding, “companies will break.”
«Salaries cannot be raised by 20 percent more than prices earned by companies who hire people, because all companies would break,” the minister stressed, after the secretary-general of the Train Drivers’ Union (UTA), Roberto Fernández, said they would demand a 50 percent salary hike in next year’s wage negotiations.
In statements to a radio today, Kicillof said: “I remember that last year, in January, they were also planning a scenario with 60 percent salary rises, but when negotiations began, hikes were established like in any dynamic economy like ours.”
“The government has always been pushing for salaries in Argentina to grow, considering that a great part of the salary decisions are made by the private sector,” he added.
Referring to a recent debt swap offer on the Boden 2015 bonds Kicillof considered it “successful” adding “investors were offered fresh dollars and they chose to keep bonds.”
“Argentina is not desperate to get dollars, like in past times,” the minister said and predicted that next year, Argentina will be able to face debt payments “with no problems.”
Source: Buenos Aires Herald