Santa Cruz province, which accounts for 20% of domestic oil production, through moments of great tension due to a severe infighting between two sectors of the labor union of the brave struggle for control of the guild and leading 24 day strike, with the risk of shortages in the market. Unemployment affects mainly wells north of the province where they operate Repsol-YPF and Pan American Energy (Argentine capital and Chinese) and has caused the reaction of the courts, the Minister of Labour and union leaders at national, trying, without apparent success for the moment, to regain control of the industry in the province.
The internal squabbling for power in the Argentine unions are common and not always are heard in meetings or votes, but sometimes resulting in clashes in the streets, sometimes with sticks and sometimes a clean shot. The oil sector, with high salaries and big money management, has been one of the most contentious.
Two years ago another trade dispute over control of the site of the Corcovado, in the province of La Pampa, ended with one dead and dozens injured. This time, the battle has broken out in large deposits of Santa Cruz, the native province of Nestor Kirchner, with 272,000 inhabitants and a huge area equivalent to almost half of Spain.
The fight began the first of April when the provincial union chief, Hector Segovia, signed an agreement for the sector, which accepted a wage increase of 23%, divided in five installments. Inflation in Argentina, which officially does not exceed 11%, is, as many private consultants, in about 25-30% real.
One sector of the union, led by the number two, refused to accept the agreement and demanded the resignation of Segovia with a strike that paralyzed much of the oil production. First involved the courts of justice, which suspended the executive committee. Then the Ministry of Labour appointed an interim financial controller, and finally, his own Oil and Gas Federation, the national union, which sent its own controller.
None has succeeded so far to defuse the conflict, increasingly bitter and fierce. A group of workers, near Segovia, he took the three seats of union and announced that they will resist "with sticks and whatever it takes." "We will fight to the last" he told a local radio station one of the union leaders near Segovia, who absolutely refuses to accept the intervention of "their" union.
The "oil war" threatens to affect the governor of the province, Kirchner, Daniel Peralta, and, above all, to reduce the supply of fuel in some areas of the country. Planning Minister Julio de Vido said yesterday that "there is no reason why there is no fuel," because other fields, in other provinces, covering the shortfall, but also did not hide its concern "if (in Santa Cruz) measures are unthinkable.
" 
The internal squabbling for power in the Argentine unions are common and not always are heard in meetings or votes, but sometimes resulting in clashes in the streets, sometimes with sticks and sometimes a clean shot. The oil sector, with high salaries and big money management, has been one of the most contentious.
Two years ago another trade dispute over control of the site of the Corcovado, in the province of La Pampa, ended with one dead and dozens injured. This time, the battle has broken out in large deposits of Santa Cruz, the native province of Nestor Kirchner, with 272,000 inhabitants and a huge area equivalent to almost half of Spain.
The fight began the first of April when the provincial union chief, Hector Segovia, signed an agreement for the sector, which accepted a wage increase of 23%, divided in five installments. Inflation in Argentina, which officially does not exceed 11%, is, as many private consultants, in about 25-30% real.
One sector of the union, led by the number two, refused to accept the agreement and demanded the resignation of Segovia with a strike that paralyzed much of the oil production. First involved the courts of justice, which suspended the executive committee. Then the Ministry of Labour appointed an interim financial controller, and finally, his own Oil and Gas Federation, the national union, which sent its own controller.
None has succeeded so far to defuse the conflict, increasingly bitter and fierce. A group of workers, near Segovia, he took the three seats of union and announced that they will resist "with sticks and whatever it takes." "We will fight to the last" he told a local radio station one of the union leaders near Segovia, who absolutely refuses to accept the intervention of "their" union.
The "oil war" threatens to affect the governor of the province, Kirchner, Daniel Peralta, and, above all, to reduce the supply of fuel in some areas of the country. Planning Minister Julio de Vido said yesterday that "there is no reason why there is no fuel," because other fields, in other provinces, covering the shortfall, but also did not hide its concern "if (in Santa Cruz) measures are unthinkable.
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