Argentine Unions Lose Control of Health Fund
Michael Eisenscher
07:34 p.m Jan 19, 2000 Eastern
BUENOS AIRES, Jan 19 (Reuters) - Argentina's government, drafting labour
reforms fiercely opposed by unions, said on Wednesday it took control of a
special health care fund away from organised labour to ensure it is spent
properly.
President Fernando de la Rua of the centre-left Alliance coalition on
Tuesday repealed a decree made last year by his Peronist predecessor Carlos
Menem which allowed unions to administer a special $360 million public
health-care fund.
Vice President Carlos Alvarez told local radio on Wednesday that the repeal
``just puts in the right place a decision by (then) President Menem, which
was absolutely arbitrary.''
Labour Minister Alberto Flamarique told Clarin newspaper: ``De la Rua wants
to put an end to discretion in the handling of public funds and recover
transparency.''
De la Rua, of the centrist Radical Party which forms the Alliance along
with centre-left Frepaso, took office on Dec. 10.
He is proposing changes to the labour code which should be sent to Congress
in the coming days and face stiff opposition from unions, which largely
support the Peronists.
The bill would cut employers' payroll tax and decentralize collective
bargaining. The repeal of the unions' administration of the fund at a time
of labour discussions was ``a strange coincidence,'' Flamarique said.
Hugo Moyano, head of the hardline truckers union MTA, threatened to call a
strike to protest De la Rua's move. ``I think they don't allow us any other
way out,'' he said.
Moyano, touted as the next head of the General Workers' Confederation,
Argentina's biggest labour group, warned that unions may resort to measures
like the 13 crippling strikes they launched in the 1980s against President
Raul Alfonsin, a Radical like De la Rua.
Those strikes contributed to economic chaos and social unrest which forced
Alfonsin to resign and hand over power to Menem five months ahead of schedule.
But Social Development Minister Graciela Fernandez Meijide said the repeal
was ``nothing but justice ... I wonder whether public opinion will applaud
a strike.''
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