The union takeover continues, despite mandatory conciliation

According to the FATE spokesperson, the company remains waiting for its employees to vacate the facilities to regain control or for Justice to execute an order. eviction order.

“It is a peaceful permanence in protection of jobs until the company complies with the mandatory conciliation. Us we are the first interested in wanting to start working. But they have to give us a date and time, which they didn’t say, and the guarantee that the entire union will be inside until the colleagues come in on the shift they determine. And they don’t want to give that guarantee,” he explained to Clarion Ariel Godoy, one of the fired FATE workers.

“We believe that it is a maneuver so that we leave, we are not in the plant and then they do not let us enter again,” he clarified.

This occurs while the mandatory conciliation dictated by the Government for 15 days, after the company announced the cessation of activities and the dismissal of 920 employees.

While the measure dictated by the Government lasts – very upset with the decision of the owner of FATE, Javier Madanes Quintanillaif implemented before the sanction of the labor reform -, the factory must reopen and assign tasks “with the few inputs” that are in the plant.

The labor conflict has as a backdrop the crisis in tire production in Argentinawith a increase in imports up to 663 million dollars in 2025.

Three out of every four tires used in the country already originate abroad, mainly from China, after tariffs were lowered from 35% to 16% in recent years.

In this context and with an economic model that does not make sectoral policy for the industry, FATE’s prices remained above the competition and its costs remained highbetween an appreciated exchange rate (expensive dollar for your business) and taxes without significant changes.

The impact is also reflected in the automotive industry as a whole. In December 2025, according to the National Institute of Statistics and Censuses (Indec), rubber and plastic products used only 33.4% of the industrial installed capacity, while the automotive industry used 31.2%; less than a third of its potential.

In both cases, the decline is almost 10 percentage points compared to the same month in 2024. Tire production at the end of last year had plummeted by 57.3% year-on-year.

FATE is not the only company in the sector in danger: The local map includes Pirelli, with a plant in Merlo, and Bridgestone, with facilities in Llavallol, which in recent years also went through episodes of production adjustments and union conflicts.