Alejandro Crespo, the leader of the Single Union of Tire Workers (Sutna), has the ability to leave no one indifferent. Above all, after a week in which he was part of the public agenda for having taken over the fourth floor of the Ministry of Labor and of putting in trouble, with their wage claims, an important sector of the country’s economy, which is already showing blows.
The 47-year-old leader has a story that allows us to understand his mode of action: he joined Fate in 2004 through his father, who worked at the firm located in the Buenos Aires town of San Fernando, where there were many employees sympathetic to the left-wing ideas, as a worker of those times recalls before PROFILE.
Quickly, he began to join the guild and the Workers Party and he was part as a union delegate, over the years, in 2008 precisely, of a new litter of cadres who starred in the renewal of the local sectional, displacing the leadership of that time. There, as current officials and opponents report, there were several factors for Crespo’s first promotion: a powerful speech against the union bureaucracy that generated adherence, management wear and tear and, as indicated by Maximiliano Bronzuoli, current union secretary of SUTNA , a situation that “was not enough” for thousands of employees who demanded a change.
“There were abuses by the employers, low wage agreements. That is why we organized ourselves and luckily we have the support of the workers, who gave us their full backing,” says Bronzuoli, who accompanied the current secretary general since the 2000s.
The next step of the leader who is questioned today by the Government, CGT and the companies in the sector, was to go for the national leadership of SUTNA, something they achieved in 2016. For the union sphere, it was a shock since they did not expect a defeat of the official list, which the union managed to keep for 17 years, of the hand of Pedro Wasiejko, referent of the CTA and today president of the state shipyard Río Santiago.
In 2004 he entered the Fate plant for his father, a hierarchical employee
An opponent on Crespo’s payroll maintains that the trade unionist knew how to interpret the climate of the time, marked by the arrival at the Casa Rosada of Mauricio Macri and with a Kirchnerism with downward actions. “Those were years in which Kirchnerism was not well seen and Crespo, as the good opportunist that he is, jumped on it, speaking against the income tax, for example. He got the endorsement of the affiliates and in a short time destroyed all the good that was done. In fact, he has nothing to show for management, his priority was always the Partido Obrero”, he shot.
Also, he adds that his way of being, intransigent, hard, leads to tense all kinds of negotiation without any kind of study of the offers that are on the table. For example, he defines that what happened in recent weeks, with the seizure of the labor portfolio located on Callao Avenue, “can lead the union to total destruction.” A version shared by the last person who faced him electorally in 2021, Marcelo Gallardo, from the Violet List, before this medium: “What we saw was a tragedy, but it is not surprising, it was always his style. He even stopped fighting for workers’ participation in company profits, a total setback.”
On Crespo’s side they defend themselves: they rule out any type of criticism and mention that they think of the workers first. And, before the emergence of the takeover, they respond that it was not planned but a product of Claudio Moroni and the companies, who agreed to “kick the board in the joint discussion,” they argue. Regarding the salary debate, the leader of SUTNA reflects that they are looking for “a collective bargaining, we started the claim months ago and we are in a context in which inflation does not let up.” “A qualified operator, who works 8 and a half hours with rotating shifts, earns $ 475 per hour”, emphasized the man who, although he left the ministry along with his colleagues, promises to continue fighting for his orders at the doors of each business.
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