The Buenos Aires Herald Goes On Strike (Updated)
About two dozen journalists at the 135-year-old Buenos Aires Herald went on strike Monday, demanding higher wages and better working conditions.
As of late Wednesday, the journalists were still on strike, having rejected a 3% retroactive pay hike for 2010 and a 10% raise for 2011.
The Herald, Argentina’s only major English-language newspaper, gained international recognition for its courageous coverage of disappearances and other dastardly deeds during the country’s 1976-1983 military dictatorship.
“Unfortunately we haven’t been able to reach an agreement about salaries,” said Judith Rabinovich, a spokeswoman for the Buenos Aires Press Workers Union, or UTPBA. “We’ve had a lot of patience with these negotiations, which have been going on since January.”
Journalists at the Herald typically make somewhere between 2,300 (US $563) and 4,000 pesos a month, with the average likely being closer to 2,700 pesos.
“There’s a big difference between what Herald workers make and what reporters at other papers make,” Rabinovich said in a phone interview. “These salaries are very low. But these are very qualified reporters who speak two languages.”
Herald employees are seeking a 35% salary hike for 2011, putting the basic salary at the paper at around 4,100 pesos a month, she said.
The vast bulk of economists in Argentina estimate that inflation totals somewhere in the neighborhood of 25% annually. Most major unions have obtained annual salary hikes of between 20% and 30%, and often higher, in recent years.
“The company is very far from satisfying that request and making a deal,” he added.
The Herald is owned by the same publishing company that owns the financial daily Ambito Financiero. Despite the strike, Rabinovich said a reduced version of the paper is being published.
Union reps are set to meet with management Thursday at the Labor Ministry to try and reach a a settlement. A spokesman for the Herald’s management could not be reached immediately for comment.
UPDATE: The Herald workers on Thursday suspended the strike in hopes of reaching an agreement soon with management.
If I’m not confused The BA Herald and Ambito Financiero, both belong to Szpolski’s Group, which is supported disproportionately by government’s advertising.
Shouldn’t there be no disproportion in gov’t's advertising now with the ‘Ley de medios’? How unfair.
[...] to the Argentine Post for today’s story. Tagged as: AmFin, Argentina, Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires Herald, Labour Ministry, paro, strike, [...]
You are confused. The Herald belonged to Sspolski but was bough by AmFin in 2009, it belongs to Vignatti.
believe me, they do NOT belong to S. the herald used to belong to him, ambito never did.
but they do get a lot of gov’t advertisement.
more info:
http://seniales.blogspot.com/2008/12/se-anunci-compra-del-paquete.html
Depends….how many hours per day each one works?
Per-diem? part-time?
Don Vignatti, a truck driver makes more….
Anyway, the canasta basica has gone to the sky-
And two languages are two languages.
Mantain this news paper.
It was already there when I was born