Argentine crushers end 24-hour action, but threaten fresh walkouts

Argentina's oilseed workers and grain receivers lifted their strike action on Wednesday, after staging a 24-hour strike that brought disruption to a number of grain ports across the country.

In a statement, the crushers’ union FTCIOD said that activity resumed at 6 am local time.

The union also declared a state of alert and confirmed that its oilseed workers would continue to work strictly to rule, a move that itself is likely to lead to delays in production processes as workers cut overtime activity and refuse to take on extra duties that are not specifically stipulated in labor agreements.

“Our union organizations will now evaluate the next steps of the action plan and the modality of the next protest actions,” FTCIOD said.

“The state of alert means that the union could launch new strike actions at any time. They have said that they would probably launch sudden strike actions in the coming days,” an industry source told Agricensus.

According to press reports, the strike action had affected several crushing facilities as well as grain ports in Santa Fe province as well as in Quequen and Bahia Blanca, in Buenos Aires.

The local oilseed crushing and exporters chamber Ciara-CEC urged unions to resume salary negotiations but argued that salary demands were excessive.

Legally, unions are able to launch strike actions as the mandatory conciliation stage, a key step that is ordered by the country’s Labor Ministry, had already expired.

On December 1, maritime workers union SOMU also announced strike action due to a salary dispute with any walkouts likely to have an impact at certain maritime and river ports across the country.