Argentina's autoworkers losing hours with export decline

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (CNN) -- Argentina's principal carmakers have ordered some factory workers to take unpaid vacations and slashed work schedules for others after a recent drop in auto exports to Brazil and Mexico.

Some have considered the moves unfair.

"In the last six years, we have been the creators of 20 percent of the nation's gross industrial product. We were third in foreign currency imports to this dear country. We don't deserve to be thrown into the streets with the first problem," said Ricardo Pignanelli, a member of the mechanics union.

In the province of Santa Fe, General Motors fired 435 workers who were later rehired through a mandatory conciliation process imposed by the provincial government.

But in Cordoba, Argentina's second-largest city, Renault did not renew its contract with 300 workers.

Iveco, maker of Fiat trucks, ordered rotating layoffs for 350 workers, and Volkswagen laid off 228 workers -- showing that the crisis has permeated all sectors of the industry.

"We are living a double crisis," said Julio Godio, an analyst with the World of Labor Institute. "The crisis that has to do with our difficulties in achieving not only a more industrialized economy but a market economy."

About 10,000 autoworkers are estimated to have been affected by cuts and labor modifications.

The situation isn't expected to improve until sales to Brazil and Mexico recover. The two countries account for more than half of Argentina's exports of about 600,000 cars per year.

Argentina's General Confederation of Labor, a trade union, has not asked that the nation's automakers be forced to pay double severance to those who have lost their jobs, as it did during the economic crisis of 2001, though it has not ruled out that possibility.

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