Carlos Tomada: “The Liaison Committee didn’t understand anything”

Argentina, January 12, 2011

Carlos Tomada, Minister of Labor, told in the Public Television program 6-7-8, after the meeting with the Liaison Committee that “its members have refused to understand anything”. He also criticized the UATRE, union led by Geronimo Venegas for the cases of slave labor found in rural areas.

And said “it is difficult to say whether the meeting was positive or not, because the members of the Liaison Committee have refused to understand anything”.

“I had gone with the idea of a commitment from them to review and take part in the postures that I had checked, but it seems that a more intransigent attitude prevailed” added the minister in the television program.

The Minister of Labor expressed its “surprise” by the attitude of the Liaison Committee and expressed displeasure with them saying “silence means naturalizing these forms of exploitation”.

“Fighting the illegal work concerns us all”, being the first obligation of “employers”. He also noted that the persistence of job insecurity would less if the unions had a more active role, since they are able to “report, compare and show situations of illegal labor”.

Therefore, the minister urged the Congress to “discuss and approve” the Rural Labor law, sent by the President at the beginning of last year.

And finally concluded “We need the law to be discussed, approved, so we can have instruments, not only to improve the protection of agricultural workers but also to avoid these specific situations from happening to eradicate them in Argentina”.