Pablo Moyano met with the transport companies of the Mercado Agroganadero de Cañuelas (MAG) to demand a 15% bonus for livestock drivers. None of them signed on the spot and they warned that, if it is approved, they would raise freight rates by between 15% and 20%.
The Mercado Agroganadero de Cañuelas (MAG) received a visit that unsettled much of the transport business community. The deputy secretary general of the Sindicato de Choferes de Camioneros, Pablo Moyano, met at the site on Route 6 with the main companies operating there to demand an improvement in the working and wage conditions of the workers who haul live cattle.
The specific request was aimed at securing a 15% bonus on top of the current collective agreement, in recognition of the tasks drivers perform during the loading and unloading of the animals. "The driver does not only carry out the task of a driver; he has also been assigned additional tasks," said Moyano, who described the claim as an "urgent need".
Far from being an improvised proposal, the union brought an agreement that has already been signed by companies in Ayacucho, Tandil, Tres Arroyos and Necochea. Camioneros' intention is to replicate it across the country. "It will take union work to do it," the leader said.
Leaving the meeting, Moyano was optimistic: he said there is "good will" and that "God willing, next week we will be in a position to sign it".
None of the companies present signed the agreement brought by Camioneros on the spot. Instead, they agreed verbally to continue the negotiations. "This did not start here. It started outside and it all came pre-cooked," one of the businessmen who took part in the meeting told Bichos de Campo. Although he said the conversation "took place on good terms", he acknowledged that they were not in a position "to say no".
"If we don't accept, they will force us to put a second man on the truck, like the Coca-Cola vehicles do. The driver drives and the assistant unloads the packages. They told us to choose, and with the numbers in this sector, we cannot hire another driver," he said.
The businessmen made it clear that they will only sign if they can pass the increase on to their clients. "We agreed that they will send us the paperwork. If it goes through, it will most likely be from January. But something we made clear is that we will sign if we can pass the increase on to our clients. Otherwise it will get complicated for us. Diesel rose all year and we have not touched our rates for 8 months. If that 15% increase is confirmed, in the short term we will have to raise freight rates by between 15% and 20%," he anticipated.
According to what was indicated to this outlet, a livestock hauler earns a monthly salary of between 2.3 and 2.8 million pesos, a figure that varies depending on the number of kilometers traveled.
The arrival of Camioneros at the MAG had other overtones and also affected the market's authorities: the union tried to pressure the logistics firms operating there to join. "Our market is a place where a lot of trucks dock to unload every day and to take cattle out every day. On average 6,000 head of cattle pass through here daily. Moyano's view was that we should check that the trucks docking at the market are affiliated with the union, but that affiliation is not our job," said Fernando Sáenz Valiente, vice president of the MAG.
"We can offer the drivers the best docks to pull into and plenty of amenities, but our activity has nothing to do with checking their union papers. That is a problem for the hauler and his driver. As vice president I stopped by to say hello, we even opened a hall for the meeting, but I left because it has nothing to do with our role," he added.
Along the same lines, Carlos Colombo, president of the MAG, denied that responsibility and assigned to the companies the task of checking that the trucks are insured and the drivers properly registered. "Whether or not they are affiliated with a union is an agreement of each individual company. We operate like any other livestock concentration market in the country," he stated.
Nicolás Franchini, general coordinator of the MAG, recalled that this is not the first time Camioneros has pressured over memberships: "as soon as the move was made, there was a tent on Route 205 where they stopped the haulers and surveyed them". He also stressed that the facilities for drivers to wash up and rest were "a matter of solidarity" and that the market has no contractual relationship with the transport companies.
One source consulted who asked to remain anonymous showed greater displeasure: "We all know Moyano's personality. He talked about the workers as if we did not value them. That is the stance he always takes. And a worker is not only the one riding on a truck. That 15% increase is not for new work, but for something that has always been done."
