Two workers killed and half a dozen wounded was the outcome of the explosion a furnace at the plant that the company occupies in Villa Constitución Acindar. However, beyond the victims of the explosion of early February, the powerful mill installed in the main city of the department has shaped the social geography of the region over the past fifty years. The neat point of power, burn the body of workers. Explosiones.La explosion occurred around 10.45 am on 5 February this year. The Chronicles pointed out, the next day that "a defect occurred in the cooling system of the oven number 4 Acindar plant caused an explosion that hit ten operatives, who suffered serious burns." Two workers were taken to the Burn Center of British Sanatorium Rosario, and died four days later. The others were admitted to the hospital Rivadavia Villa Constitución. Immediately, the local chapter of the Metal Workers Union (UOM) resolved a 24-hour strike, "demanding better working conditions and measures to improve work safety." Victorio Paulone, secretary general of that branch and secretary of the Trade Union Confederation of Argentine Workers (CTA), reported that "the unilateral amendment by the company in the production process, may have been the efficient cause of the explosion." Fault and ritmos.La firm acknowledged in a statement that the fact constituted "the first and largest such accident occurred in its 65 year history," while noting that put "all resources available to victims ". Jorge Vaccaro, manager of External Affairs Acindar, the company billed around $ 533,000 per day in 2006, from Buenos Aires said that the accident would have occurred "during a furnace repair that you were changing refractory apparently arose a malfunction that caused the explosion. " At the same time said that "people who approve these procedures is the safety of plant "and that the task is routine and is done under strict control and cooling in the area where they work." However, from the Villa UOM Acindar Constitution reported that "unilaterally changed the cooling time of the furnace according to what had been scheduled with the union, is 24 hours. Instead, reduced to four or five hours and this could be the trigger for the explosion. "Assembled in a factory assembly provided for the work stoppage" to protest the violation of work safety rules after to increase productivity at all costs ", while the workers engaged in such work said they would not return to the oven" until not reset within 24 hours for cooling, as promptly agreed between the company and the union. "Concerning the dead workers, Paulone said" belonged to a company that was Acindar. We help them self-organized and begin direct negotiations with Acindar with respect to this particular job, a task that is done once a week in the ovens. The drama was that they earned in that work did not amount to a fortnight and we were always negotiating another task for them to have a living wage. "Then he devoted exclusively to this work in the oven and waiting time was shorter different cooling mechanisms. And yesterday some mechanical failure interrupted the flow of water, caused steam buildup and explosion fatal "completed the proprietor of the Villa Constitución.Tercerización.Para Paulone UOM, the explosion showed" the presence of private contractors that outsource services and threaten stability workers to serve Acindar. It is time that the Ministry of Labour put a stop to the outsourcing of services that only serves to cheapen the cost of labor to big business through the fraud of contractors and subcontractors. "He added that victims" are a contractor. At the beginning of the mill was made by the home campus and then outsourced. It is one of the riskiest jobs. It's actually a masonry because what boys do is change the refractories, which are not common but are heavier and larger and move with a kind of mechanical shovel. "On the details of that task, Paulone said "a couple of years ago used the mechanism to wait 24 hours to cool the oven. Now they implemented another system that shortened the time a mechanism for removal of the bricks through the use of a curtain of water and cold air. He let the oven and 8 hours had cooled. But obviously there was an evolution of this potential risk. This is what is happening in Acindar and large companies with accelerating production times. "Oficiales.Por measures its part, the Secretary for the Promotion of Decent Work of the Ministry of Labour of the province, Alicia Ciciliani he said that the issue is solved "by creating a health and safety committee at the factory backed by a law which workers are consulted to stop these processes when they consider at risk the life of a comrade. We are thinking for companies with more than 50 employees in a joint mixed committee where decisions are taken by consensus, with equal representation of workers of the company. In companies with less employees to create the figure of a safety representative, a worker would be able to see these types of risks in business. This would help to defend the safety of workers and increase business productivity. "If it proves the lack of security measures, the committee" would stop production and get a technical inspection enforcement authority, which would be this case the Ministry of Labour of the province, "said the provincial official, while stressing that" the corporate sector will mean a contribution to improving the working environment and increased productivity. "About the accident at the plant Villa Constitución Under Secretary recorded that "we sent a team of inspectors trained in hygiene and safety which we reported that the accident occurred due to technical matters which are under investigation and which we will follow. We believe that these life threatening issues at work are absolutely predictable. Apparently, the company modified a process agreed with the union because of the urgency of production. "With regard to possible sanctions in case of proving negligence on the part of the company, the official said that" indeed, no could only be sanctions but we're going to sit with the union and we will talk with the company about the measures prevention of future we are talking about. "Absences and responsabilidades.El Paulone leader Victorio in turn questioned the lack of state inspections Acindar factory," since I can remember there have been virtually no inspections. All it has done is from the workers' struggle and resistance. For us today is a day of mourning and reflection. We met with the company and have agreed that they will implement these joint committees. We're going to fund these things. I recall that in recent years there has been a sequel Acindar accident, the last was in February last year. And do not repeat the same accident, but they are different situations, makes it imperative that a permanent commission composed of the workers and the company to work on the tree and attack causes particular problems where there is risk, "explained the historic militant sindical.En regarding safety in the workplace, the leader pointed out that "a criterion that must be evaluated continuously because conditions are changing with the introduction of new technologies, primarily the acceleration of production processes. Acindar production today runs 30% faster than it did four or five years ago. Obviously the only security may come calling long time is the installation of the joint committees on safety and hygiene. Companies have them but the law is being proposed in Santa Fe is considering because it has to be a joint body where representation of employees have more say over the risk and treatment equipment. Memories Villazo.Para the first half of the seventies, the sectional Villa Constitución Metal Workers Union (UOM), with main base among workers of the company Acindar, suffered a series of interventions, ordered from the national leadership. For primary elections 1974, Brown List, a group of workers who was first organized in secret and illegal to regain the union-led by Alberto Piccinini, was emerging as the sure winner of Sectional gremio.El local attorney Joseph BODRERO argues that union front that came together "the children of those who made the Grito de Alcorta, who had migrated from the fields with Ongania eviction law, on the one hand and on the other side also had many of the children of those who had fought in the FORA, which existed in Villa Constitución was hegemonic, except for the railway, were union strength. And those things were, there was a historical memory that surfaces again with the formation of Brown List. "Given the real possibility of losing control of an important branch, the leadership of national UOM Villa Constitution excluded the delegations to normalize. When the leaders of the list were expelled from the guild Brown broke the so-called" Villaz "strike with power plants, control of production workers, picketing, placement of barricades and workers self-defense groups. There were the workers Acindar of Metcon (subsidiary of Ford), of Marathon, Vilber But there were also workers of small workshops contractors in the region. On 16 March, more than 12,000 people marched to the main square to demand the normalization of the union. After a week of struggle and mobilization achieved the signing of a Memorandum of Agreement. It established the commitment of a new call for elections to fully normalize the Body of Delegates and the Commission Directiva.Finalmente, the workers managed to call for elections in November 1974. Brown's List won by 65% \u200b\u200bof the vote against Rose List, which met the national leadership of Lorenzo Miguel, and assumed the leadership of the local branch of the UOM Villa Constitution on 1 December of that year. But this democratic spring would last just over three meses.En paid Acindar 1975 the represión.El March 19, 1975, the government of Maria Estela Martinez de Peron announced through a press release that intelligence agencies had detected "a subversive plot aimed at paralyzing the industrial activity centered in Villa Constitución" . At dawn on March 20, the city of Villa Constitución was besieged by forces of repression. Four thousand troops and 500 hired thugs of the Ministry of Social Welfare of the Nation took the city. A convoy of a mile, made by Ford Falcon and police cars. A combination of forces called "legal" and illegal actions of the Triple A. More than 300 workers were detained. Other kidnapped, tortured and journalist Miguel Bonasso asesinados.Para: "beyond the stated purposes of 'stop subversion and the feast of the corrupt', the coup leaders wanted to reduce to a minimum the power of traditional trade union lines and clear of the earth to the basic leadership Ricardo Balbin was marked as' industrial guerrilla'...". After the invasion, was reached to form a strike committee with representatives from different factories in the region. Popular assemblies were made, and from them came the call for a mobilization, by 22 April. The Santa Fe Southern metal strike spread over 59 days, with the support of small businesses in the area. The repression grew, and Acindar, which had as its chairman who would become the Minister of Economy of the dictatorship, Jose Alfredo Martinez de Hoz, actively collaborated with the persecution of union leaders and activists and politicians. This is confirmed by, among other testimonies, the story of former federal police commissioner, Rodolfo Fernandez Pilgrim, in his statement to the Commission on Human Rights Argentina, in 1983.Fernández reported illegal repression against workers Villa Constitución Acindar , Metcon, Vilber and Marathon. Said these proceedings, that the invasion of March 20, 1975, was led by Commissioner Antonio "Don Chicho" Fischietti, who had been delegated to the Federal in the province of Tucumán, and described how to generate extra money paid arrests and subsequent torture in the former single hostel Acindar plant, when the manager was Jose Alfredo Martinez de Hoz and chairman, Arturo Acevedo. "The employer of the metals industries based there, prominently President Acindar directory, engineer Arturo Acevedo, established close links with police forces through extra payments in cash. Acindar became a kind of military strength, with barbed wire fences. Police officers guarding the factory is housed in the homes reserved for company executives ... Acindar, paid to all police personnel (officers, NCOs and troops) an extra plus in cash, plus additional himself officially perceived effective, a task that was in charge of chief of staff of the company by the name Aznares, as well as labor relations chief, Pellegrini, "Pilgrim reported Fernández.Villa Constitution added at the end of the dictatorship, about fifty members missing and murdered. "Villa was a field test of what would later be applied in all country. The activity of Ford and other economic groups is closely linked to the business policy of punish all to apply an economic model "¸ says Paulone leader Victorio, who starred in those days of persecution and resistencias.Para the leader of the List Brown, Alberto Piccinini, the day of 20 March "is a sad time for us. It was a great repression, where we were about 300 jailed comrades, a repression that was not only in Villa Constitución, but throughout the industrial belt, and ended with long prison terms, with a heroic strike of metal workers sustained over two months. This repression caused a huge loss to the labor movement. "Negocios.El blood and himself March 24, 1976 which declared the coup led by Videla, Massera and Agosti, underwent 15 unions. In the days that followed, figure is multiplied by several hundred. As recorded Miguel Bonasso, 222/76 secret directive "ordering the occupation of factories and local unions in different parts of the country," the dictatorship while abolishing the right to strike, union activity suspended and intervened sociales.El works Acindar example in 1975 had spread to other large companies in the country, from whose office staff "were provided names of subversive activities ", while the same firms funded task forces. In the company of Villa Constitución family owned Acevedo, General Aufranc Alcides Lopez replaces Jose Alfredo Martinez de Hoz, who from April 2 1976 deals with the Ministry of Economy of the newly opened dictatorship. As the historian Norberto Galasso recorded, signature, "which in 1976 suffered from competition from Tamet, Gurmendi and Santa Rosa, reached from the management of Martinez de Hoz in Ministry of Economy impressive growth that leads her to swallow these three competitors and constituted in 1984 in the largest local private companies in Argentina in the ranking sales. The fourth in the country after YPF, Esso and Shell. Also during this period, foreign borrowing 700 million dollars debt that was forwarded to the State in 1982 largely through hedges in place for another 'cat': Domingo Cavallo ...". In April 1976, at a reception organized by the Inter-American Development Bank for the arrival of a financial mission, the new president of Acindar Kein meets Walter, father of the second man from the Ministry of Economy. Aufranc Lee Klein congratulated by designation, "needed a strong man like you," he says. And asked about the news of the arrest of 23 delegates factory. Alcides López General Aufranc then boasts: "Do not worry, Walter. All are underground." The country to its knees. "It has been evidenced in the transcript of the proceeding, the apparent arbitrariness with which they conducted the maximum political and economic Nation in the periods analyzed (1976 / 1983 )..." Federal Judge says Jorge Ballestero in the resolution of Case No. 14467, July 2000. And adds: "So also performed and managers of certain companies and public and private." Cause 14,467 was initiated in 1982 by lawyer Alejandro Olmos, and is a journey through the geography of impunities daily that were building the Argentina Debt. Debt grew from U.S. $ 7,500 million in 1975 to 55,000 million in 1983. In between, the July 5, 1982, Domingo Cavallo, in charge of the Central Bank of Argentina, nationalized the debt of over $ 650 million Acindar, along with the other two hundred empresas.Para 2001 pickets and pans, that same debt scratched the 132,000 million. Who became at 155,000 million dollars if we add the private debt. And it would have to add the 40,000 million dollar revenue into the state to quickly evaporate as a result of privatization of enterprises nacionales.El only charged in the case, Jose Alfredo Martinez de Hoz, Prime Minister of Economics of the dictatorship, which was driven directly from the directory Acindar, was dismissed "operate under the prescription of criminal proceedings". No But the verdict is strong: Argentina's foreign debt "has been grossly increased from 1976 through the implementation of a vulgar and offensive economic policy that brought the country to its knees through the various methods used to (...) tended to benefit and support companies and private businesses, domestic and foreign, to the detriment of companies and state enterprises, through of a policy, they were poorer day by day. "Among the companies benefiting from the poverty of the majority planned is Argentinian Acindar.La same as in early February resulted in the deaths of two workers in the name of productivity.
Sources: - Cadus, Jorge and Toscanini, Facundo. "A time yesterday ash. Stories of the dictatorship in the south Santa Fe. "Editorial Municipal de Rosario, 2006 .- Case No. 14,467." Olmos Alejandro s / complaint. "Resolution of Federal Judge Jorge Ballestero. July 2000 .- Del Frade, Carlos." Disappeared Unemployed " . Industrial Fantasy II. 1996 .- Galasso, Norberto. "Martinez de Hoz De Cavallo." fraternal. 1992 .- Mignone, Emilio F. "Church and Dictatorship. "National Thought. 1986 .- ACT / Dispatch 542. Edition of February 5, 2008 .- The Capital. Edition of February 6, 2008 .- Rosario 12 / Issue of February 10, 2008 .- Journal Postcards. Alcorta. Numbers 1 to 62 .- Revista Alapalabra. Rosario. Nos. 1 to 13.
DIARIO EL PORTAL DE SANTA FE
