2023-05-22 13:47:22
The Union of Private Oil Workers of Neuquén, Río Negro and La Pampa has been on strike since last night, affecting the operation in Vaca Muerta and cutting off income to the fields. The claim is repeated: security measures, but this time, it seems that only a meeting is not going to unlock the conflict. Although the union was called to a meeting, starting at 11, with the Chamber of Hydrocarbons Exploration and Production (CEPH), the statements of the leader Marcelo Rucci emphasized that for months they have been waiting for a protocol that has not arrived and that, while Therefore, companies do not take action.
In “Rarranquemos” by RÍO NEGRO RADIO, the oil leader explained that he had requested the meeting with the Chamber for early this Monday, but they asked him to do it at 11. This gave him the pattern that “they had nothing ».
Among the accidents and deaths, Rucci stressed that there is no real progress and that the workers continue to suffer the consequences. On June 22 of last year he died Victor Vazquez (32) in the Río Neuquén deposit, in the Barda del Medio area. Exactly three months later, in September, three workers died, Víctor Herrera (58), Gonzalo Molina (31) and Fernando Jara (34), due to the explosion and fire at the NAO refinery in Plaza Huincul.
After this event, there was a meeting between oil workers, the company and the government in which it was agreed to form a Mixed Committee on Safety, Prevention and Hygiene. There were not a few questions from the union to this space, which they made sure was empty of real actions. “We started talking and they never came to fruition,” Rucci explained this morning.
One of the most recent situations was the death of Gustavo Riquelme (48) due to a crash on Route 151, on April 27. In response, the oil tankers cut off all Vaca Muerta routes due to the state of the roads and the measure concluded with a meeting with the Nation’s Minister of Public Works, Gabriel Katopodis. Then it was the amputation suffered by an operator due to an accident in a Cinco Saltos field, last week, for which today’s total strike was decided.
Rucci, in RÍO NEGRO RADIO, highlighted that companies tell workers that if they do not carry out the tasks they are asked to do, they will hire others, but then “nobody takes charge.”
He indicated that Katopodis told them that they were going to survey the routes until the end of the month and that he would travel to Neuquén to continue the negotiations.
Total stoppage of oil tankers in Vaca Muertas: the conditions to lift the measure of force
Regarding the CEPH statement that repudiates the strike, he replied that “let it remain for us (…) what happens to the people who lose their lives, who are mutilated.” Also, he pointed out that following the payments that correspond to ART, nobody takes care of the families or the mutilated workers.
“They have not done anything in this year or so, I want to see what they come up with (…) they boast of the production records, of drilling, but we continue to have records of deaths, of accidents,” Rucci said regarding the meeting this morning with the camera.
Rucci acknowledged that he has expectations because he wants this situation to be resolved, that “each partner return to their home as they came out and not in a drawer.” He pointed out that the conflict would be unlocked with the commitment to sign a protocol, an evacuation plan, that the companies will file complaints in order to have statistics of what really happens and those responsible because “they always blame the workers.”
Doors inside the Ministry of Labor, where the meeting was raised, it will be known what the point of agreement is.
Total strike of oil tankers: what the Chamber said
«They began on the day of the date (yesterday), unilaterally and without any prior notice, a general strike of activities in the provinces of Neuquén, Río Negro and La Pampa, with the consequent affectation of the production and distribution of hydrocarbons”, they repudiated the measure from the Chamber of Exploration and Production of Hydrocarbons (CEPH), in a note signed by the executive director, Manuel García Mansilla.
In the letter addressed to the Minister of Labour, Employment and Social Security of the Nation, Raquel Cecilia Kismer de Olmos, they pointed out from CEPH that the strike defined by the union “It directly affects the production and distribution of hydrocarbons in the aforementioned provinces.” Given this, They requested that “mandatory conciliation be issued and that all additional legal measures within their reach be established in order to avoid damages in the production and distribution of hydrocarbons”.
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