Journalists protest massive layoffs in Argentinean agency

Buenos Aires . – Journalists, shop stewards and representatives of opposition political groups demonstrated Thursday in Buenos Aires rejecting the dismissal of 357 workers of the Argentine official agency Telam which represents 40% of the workforce of about 900 people.

The conflict in the official agency was triggered ten days ago when dozens of dismissal telegrams began to reach employees of all agencies reported AFP.

The government of Mauricio Macri (center-right) attributes the measure to a restructuring of the official agency and denounces its alleged political use under the previous administration, under the government of the former President Cristina Kirchner (left-center Peronism).

Some of the protesters wore black bandages over their eyes and in their mouths, symbolizing what they meant by censorship of information.

Among the 357 licensees there are journalists from all sections, employees of the advertising and administration sector, with 10, 20 or 30 years in the company, who are entered under democratic governments of different signs, assured union representatives

In response, the workers hold the two offices of the agency occupied. "Due to the union measures, the service is temporarily limited," reads on the site of Telam which was frozen before the match that Tuesday 26 June qualified Argentina for the second round of the World Cup. Russia, whose Albiceleste has already been eliminated.

Workers offered legal protection to resume the situation before the conflict, arguing that the law obliges companies to open a crisis prevention procedure when there are so many redundancies, which has not been done by the agency. explained the labor lawyer Leon Piasek.

Among the dismissed, are "48 of the 90 correspondents in the interior of the country, who represent the federalism of the agency", complained Claudio Orellano, journalist and well-known journalist, one of the concerned by the measure that worked in Córdoba (700 km north).

Justice forced the agency Wednesday to reinstate a licensed journalist suffering from cancer.

In Argentina, some 3,000 newspaper workers have been fired or have lost their jobs due to media closures since the end of 2015, journalists said Thursday in central Buenos Aires .

Last week, some fifty workers from Radio del Plata were also fired.