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Workers blockade General Motors plant in Argentina(EFE Ingles Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Buenos Aires, Dec 19 (EFE).- Workers angry over planned layoffs mounted a blockade Friday of the General Motors plant in the northwestern Argentine city of Rosario. Gathered outside the gates of the factory, the disgruntled employees prevented trucks carrying vehicles bound for GM dealers around the country from leaving the facility. The protest was organized by the SMATA union after neogotiations with plant management about the layoff plan broke down in the wee hours of Friday. Those negotiations took place under a mandatory conciliation order issued by the Argentine Labor Ministry after GM Argentina announced in October that it would lay off 435 workers at the Rosario facility, a number the company subsequently reduced to 160. GM said the layoffs were needed because exports from its Argentine unit had fallen 30 percent due to global economic woes. But the union says that instead of laying off workers, GM should institute a system of rotating furloughs for all 2,000 employees at the Rosario complex. A number of multinationals with operations in Argentina have dismissed contract workers and furloughed permanent employees in the face of the economic downturn. EFE alm/dr Copyright ? 2008 EFE News Services (U.S.) Inc. |