The end of a career
Son of a railway worker, José Pedraza through all the steps of the ascent guild. On the way guaranteed the delivery of goods and rights.
Paradigm of business unionism, José Pedraza was the main accomplice of the dismantling of the rail network during the Menem decade and shrinkage to a minimum which was the nation's largest union. Half a century after stepping in jail during the dictatorship of Juan Carlos Onganía, then as a militant leader, the head of the Union of Railways, now fat and wealthy, again in the crosshairs of the Justice. This time in the case investigating the killing of Mariano Ferreyra.
son of a railway, Pedraza was born in Dean Funes in 1944 and at 16 became a worker at Ferrocarril Belgrano. He began his activism from below, as delegate of the Railway and Port. Was associated with leftist groups, but joined the Peronist. In 1968 he joined the resistance against Onganía. When the dictator ignored the normalizing of the CGT congress on the grounds that they had participated unions without fee per day, in a context of state intervention and high number of dismissals, the CGT Azopardo emerged, led in the shadows by Augusto Vandor, and the CGT de los Argentinos, with Raimundo Ongaro and Agustín Tosco. Pedraza was part of the CGTA rebel, which was responsible for organizing the street demonstrations. He knew at that time to Rodolfo Walsh, who from the CGT Weekly x-rayed the situation of the working class and the conversion of the guilds in equipment, turned squarely against the interests of workers. In the late 70's was part of the Group of 25 and faced the Peronist orthodoxy.
After the rise of Alfonsin was consolidated in the rail union, came to Saul Ubaldini, and in 1985 became secretary general of the Railway Union. Three years later distanced himself from Antonio Cafiero, his former ally, and backed Peronist Menem in internal. When the Rioja became president, his trusted men were appointed in strategic positions of the railways, which were looted as a prelude to privatization. In close relationship with Roberto Dromi, privatization ideologue, Pedraza created a mutual ghost house that served to profit from local areas and dozens of stations. In early 1989, when he decided to support the privatization plan and rationalizing the World Bank summarized the then President with the slogan "that branch, branch closing, he moved into a house and a half million dollars in Villa Devoto. "Without them we would not have achieved many things we did," praised Domingo Cavallo. During the tenure of Minister of Economy received 11 thousand kilometers of the Belgrano Cargas.
Apart from his business management, was as a leader with the approval of the Menem automatic majority in the Supreme Court to control the union to mandate expired in 1991 and no elections. Through a statutory scheme managed to exclude the opposition Celeste List. Communicate the terms of the election on page Finance of the Nation, that no worker reads. In 1996, his chief of guards quoted one of the leaders of the Celeste and warned him to choose between accepting money and keep quiet or face a "heavy." After the very heavy, ex carapintadas working on the SIDE, we reiterated the message in person and left a trotyl bread in the house occupied. A raid on the Union Railway gave the same trotyl breads, fuses and detonators that were used for the failed attack.
When Senator Eduardo Duhalde took office temporarily, Pedraza negotiated a new agreement that reduced the rights of workers who had survived the privatization. In 2003 granted the company America Latina Logistica Central SA and America Latina Logistica SA Mesopotamia all orders: extension of the probationary period of six months rental allowance if the employer he pleases and acceptance of railway transport as an essential public service that during a strike must comply with the order of the Ministry of Labour to keep it going, criteria that do not support the transport unions and the International Labour Organization.
In 2006 he was prosecuted for mismanagement burial fund railway workers and seized 50 million dollars. As privatization reduced the number of members, increased the value of fees and discounts compulsive extended to widows of railway. Graciela Gils Carbó Attorney ruled that the contract between the Union of Railways and the mutual Pedraza was "a facade to cover the great diversion of union funds to private advantage at trial." The disqualification of a judge resulted in the process of infinite powers, until the National Chamber of Criminal Appeal ordered the prescription.
Source: Page 12
0 comments:
Post a Comment