In a province with 337,000 inhabitants,
a labor conflict that includes 5,000 workers sets off alarm bells for any governor.
This is the calculation that Claudio Vidal, head of the Santa Cruz administration, makes when he counts the jobs that depend on a decision by the Casa Rosada: the reactivation of the
Jorge Cepernic and Néstor Kirchner dams
and the privatization of the
Río Turbio Carboniferous Fields ( YCRT)
.
For the moment, the response of the national State only portends a large-scale conflict.
This Wednesday,
the UOCRA announced that the dismissal of 1,800 dam workers was announced.
“The province is setting fire to us
,” is the phrase reiterated in the governorate of Santa Cruz.
In percentage terms, if the dams are not reactivated (the work was stopped in November) as the national government maintains for the moment, and if progress is made in Congress with the initiative to privatize YCRT,
1.5% of the Santa Cruz population will be left without sources of work.
In fact, Patagonia Dams - the identification of the UTE in charge of the megaproject - reported that the work has been stopped since last November due to lack of funds and that they are in talks with ENARSA (contractor of the work), to reactivate the work, but there is still no precise date.
In this context, "which exceeds the UTE and very regretting the situation;
part of the personnel linked to the project is momentarily dispensed with.
We will maintain a workforce in the works with minimal activity to guarantee its continuity," the UTE reported.
According to the construction union, 1,800 people have been laid off.
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The political discussion confronts the number of jobs with other data.
The National Executive Branch understands that loss-making companies must be under review and with the numbers on the table,
privatize them so that it is not a “tap through which million-dollar resources continue to be lost
,” official sources indicated to
Clarín
.
Río Turbio: a directionless coal mine
In that analysis box is YCRT.
The mining company located southwest of Río Gallegos (capital of the province), is dedicated to coal extraction.
It has been intervened by the national State since 2002
.
Its numbers are completely in the red, “it is not profitable but at least it can produce so as not to cause losses,” indicate the current authorities.
Despite the desire not to close the company, President Javier Milei will insist on its privatization due to the company's deficit: 7,384 million pesos are spent per month on salaries, social charges, pensions, goods and services and investments.
For this year
it will need assistance from the national State for 80,000 million pesos.
Salaries alone consume 3,485 million pesos per month, plus 1,952 million that are allocated to social charges.
YCRT's staff consists of
2,142 agents, of which only 900 are miners
, the only ones who work in front of the mine.
For the Casa Rosada the numbers do not close.
The intervention by Thierry Decoud insists that the mine can be productive and
at least not go to loss and remedy its financial red
.
Governor Vidal validates this criterion and opposes the privatization that La Libertad Advances.
In fact, together with their Patagonian peers, they issued a statement rejecting the initiative to privatize it.
“The governors of the United Provinces of the South, together with legislators, mayors of the Río Turbio basin, workers and their representatives, demonstrate against any form of privatization of the economic unit of Yacimientos Carboniferos de Río Turbio (YCRT),” he indicates. the notice.
Likewise, it was stated that both the Thermal Power Plant and the power plant, mine and the railway port complex can become profitable again, “not only to balance the accounts of their different years, but also to
generate economic profitability and foreign exchange;
through transparent management, without corruption
.”
The latest efforts - denounced the Patagonian representatives - “left serious consequences for operation, infrastructure, economic, property and labor.
The business of a few harmed the workers and the country.”
Dams under the magnifying glass
To those jobs that could be in danger due to the progress of the privatization of YCRT, an instance in which there is doubt about a possible buyer for the company, another conflict is added that the UOCRA has already been warning about:
the cessation of the construction of the hydroelectric complex on the Santa Cruz River.
This week,
1,800 workers
in the construction union were temporarily dismissed until the national government sets a reactivation date.
The UTE trusts that the negotiations lead towards that path.
The state firm ENARSA, commissioning the ambitious work, did not give any sign of reactivating the work that
was stopped in December with the change in management.
Sources from the Santa Cruz government assured that the latest conversations with the Casa Rosada were not encouraging: “in the short term the work will continue as before,
stopped and with the 2,700 workers collecting 80% of their salaries at home
.”
The question that worries the central administration is how much longer the UTE responsible for its construction, made up of the Chinese company Gezhouba (54%), Eling Energía SA (formerly Electroingeniería 36%) and Hidrocuyo SA (10%), will be able to hold the positions. of work.
To date, a seventh disbursement of $500 million is expected.
It must be remembered that the work
is financed entirely with a Chinese loan,
which is why the majority shareholding belongs to the Gezhouba company, one of the main builders of hydroelectric complexes in the world.
The decision of the national government not to give details regarding the resumption of all the work puts the construction union and the Santa Cruz administration on alert.
“Between the dams and YCRT
there are about 5,000 jobs, without which the province will enter a scenario of deep conflict
,” they told
Clarín
.
The work has uneven progress with respect to the two dams that make up the hydroelectric complex that aims to generate 1,310 megawatts of installed power, at a cost of 4,730 million dollars (1,850 million dollars have been disbursed so far), along with a complement of a 500 kilowatt high voltage line.
The dam called
Jorge Cepernic
(former governor of Santa Cruz) is the smallest: it has an installed capacity of 360 megawatts and is 41 meters high.
Its level of progress is 42%
.
In that dam there are two turbines of Chinese origin that arrived in the Patagonian province in October 2023, but they are not yet assembled.
It will have three turbines in total.
The second dam, which will be named after the former president and former Santa Cruz governor “Néstor Kirchner”, will have five turbines that are not yet in the country.
It will have a height of 73 meters and will generate 950 MW.
This work is
20% complete
in terms of “excavation, filling and buttress filling works.”
Another dam stopped in San Juan
However, this situation is not exclusive to Santa Cruz.
At 2,583 m of Patagonian soil,
the province of San Juan is going through a similar situation,
or perhaps, more pressing due to the level of progress of the work.
This is the
El Tambolar Hydroenergy Project
, which is part of the multiple system for the use of the river that will allow the incorporation of 70 Megawatts (70 MW) to the Sanjuanino and National Electrical System as a continuing link to the 125 Megawatt (MW) Los Caracoles Hydroenergy Complex, Punta Negra. , 65 Megawatts (MW), Quebrada de Ullum, 45 Megawatts (MW) and Ullum, La Olla, 44 Megawatts (MW), all currently in operation.
The project, which employs nearly 2,000 people,
is 43% complete.
Despite this, the response of the national State to the San Juan government is that there are no funds to continue the project.
The work is in the present, slowed down and surrounded by uncertainty.
The investment is around 740 million dollars and the financing, according to official data accessed by
Clarín
, responded to a trust that was fed with the proceeds of the other three dams that are active on San Juan soil.
The discussion also raises the question of
what the previous national administration did with those funds,
since 260 million dollars are missing from the trust.
See also
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The Government returns to the fray with the idea of privatizing public companies: what are the ones targeted?
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Nation-province relationship: why there is no punishment for inefficient governors