Argentina's Macri vetoes anti-layoffs law.

[forest444]

Source: Buenos Aires Herald

Argentine President Mauricio Macri yesterday vetoed the Emergency Labor Law passed by Congress. The veto was widely anticipated, with Macri having repeatedly vowed to veto this first significant piece of legislation passed by Congress that his administration opposed.

The bill was passed on Thursday by the Lower House yesterday with 147 votes in favor, three votes against and 88 abstentions by the right-wing 'Let’s Change' coalition. A two-thirds majority (172 votes) is necessary override a veto in the Lower House. Although the opposition in the Senate has close to a two-thirds majority, the margins are smaller in the Lower House.

The bill, which had the backing of unions concerned over dismissals in both the public and private sectors, imposed double severance for laid-off workers for 180 days. An estimated 155,000 have been laid off in Argentina since Macri imposed austerity measures by decree just days after taking office in December. A 40% devaluation has meanwhile caused inflation to double to 42% according to private estimates, leading to an erosion in purchasing power of nearly 20%.

Arguing that anti-layoff provisions are counterproductive because they can limit new investment, Macri defended the veto and listed a number of policies his administration has implemented since he took office. “There are over one million more kids reached by family allowances, new benefits for pensioners, the reimbursement of value added tax on the basic goods, among others.”

While the CGT labor federation did not publicly comment yesterday, the more combative CTA responded to the veto with a vow to organize a national strike and underlining that an “immediate response” is required. CTA leader Pablo Micheli and rival Hugo Yasky of the CTA de los Trabajadores have been working together on the legislation and yesterday reiterated that they would be joining forces to plan the strike. The leadership of the three CGT factions, which also supported the bill, are set to meet next week in order to agree on a unified response.

The populist Justicialist Party (Peronist) opposition remains divided in various factions without a clear leader however. Nevertheless, a statement issued by the Justicialist Party made it clear that Macri's first veto did not sit well. “President Macri, just as he vetoed over 100 laws approved by the City Legislature when he was mayor of Buenos Aires, has once again used the prerogative of a veto to ignore popular will and is denying workers the benefit of job stability.” Labor lawyer Héctor Recalde, chair of the Victory Front (FpV) caucus in the Lower House, challenged the veto and said that the “president was going to the suffer the veto of workers.”

Read more: http://buenosairesherald.com/article/214714/macri-vetoes-%E2%80%98antilayoffs%E2%80%99-law

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At least the IMF's happy.

[Judi Lynn]

1. Macri's determined to help the 1% steal the value of their work from the workers,

going big, to make work so scarce people will be afraid to quit to find other work.

If people don't honestly receive the value of their hard work, what the employers don't pay them is simply stolen from them.

What a monstrous system.

One step above slavery, as filthy as that was, and is, it always seeks to condemn the struggling, poverty striken workers, implying they are lazy, and/or greedy to need more to live.

Macri's a sadistic tool, from a long line of grifters.

[forest444]

2. Unemployment is now the top concern among Argentines (for the first time in over a decade).

No wonder this bill had 64% approval. My guess is that Macri will soon have 64% disapproval.

His cousin, meanwhile, has become Argentina's 3rd largest contractor - sometimes even being chosen for federal contracts over the top two contractors. And yes: he's one of the Panama Papers bunch.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/110850158

And to think "corruption" was the voters' top concern when Cristina Kirchner was in office. You live, you learn right?

Thanks as always for your feedback Judi!

[soyjuanma86]

3. Open letter to Macri

I'm an Argentinean citizen living abroad. As most of Argentineans, I consider myself a socialist, so here´s my response to what I think is intransigence from the part of Macri: http://goo.gl/g1IfNL This is an open letter to our president. Regards

[forest444]

4. Welcome to DU, Juanma!

Thank you for your very thoughtful open letter. That's the question, isn't it: where does he get these notions from?

I think he gets a lot of it from the International Misery Fund and of course our degenerate GOP - the only major party in the developed world that meets all 14 criteria for fascism.

Of course, it certainly didn't help that he seems to have an emotional need for acceptance from Argentina's landed elite - the very people who, when he attended the exclusive Cardinal Newman high school, referred to him as "Lacri."

To be fair, Macri has accomplished one very important task: he taught millions of voters to be a little more wary of being led around by big media. That's probably the most important learning experience voters, as a group, can have.

Thanks again for your thoughts, Juanma. And welcome to DU!