By a measure of force, from today the groups will not circulate between 9:00 p.m. and 6:00 a.m.

The Minister of Transport of the Nation, Alexis Guerrera, debuts in his position facing a measure of force on behalf of the entrepreneurs of the automotive passenger transport in the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires and Greater Buenos Aires, an area in which 18,000 groups circulate, according to sources in the sector.

The entities that group the bus companies of the Metropolitan Area of ​​Buenos Aires announced that as of today, Friday, May 7, the provision of services from 9:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m. is suspended.

The measure was taken because the companies point out that the contributions they receive via subsidies from the national State are not enough to maintain the service and that, based on this, they decide to stop circulating at night "in order to make it possible with the available resources to provide adequate coverage during times of greatest need for passengers”.

From the entity they clarified that at 9:00 p.m. the last service of the day will leave from each header of each bus line, resuming the benefits from 6:00 the next day, also from each header.

“The measure adopted is intended to safeguard the continuity of the operation during the most necessary hours, taking into account the rate freeze for more than two years and the delay in recognizing the impact of inflation on costs for more than eight years. months”, they explained from the Argentine Association of Automotive Transport Entrepreneurs (AAETA) .

From the Ministry of Transportation they indicated that they had not yet been notified of the force measure and warned that if the companies stop taking out units they can be sanctioned.

The undersecretary of Automotive Transport, Marcos César Farina, wrote on the social network Twitter that companies that do not provide service will be sanctioned.

“Given versions of suspensions of collective services for tomorrow, it is necessary to clarify that companies that do not comply will be sanctioned, maintaining the maximum frequency and guaranteeing the established covid protocols. It will continue to be controlled with agents from the National Transport Regulation Commission,” said César.

The main discussion has to do with subsidies. The companies charge them per transported passenger and, due to the restrictions they have due to the capacity of each of the units, the income via subsidies fell considerably. To this is added that in parallel the costs increased (diesel, insurance, tires, etc.).

In Transport they assure that the companies “have been charging subsidies to 100% of units despite the drop in tickets and despite the fact that they are circulating in fewer groups due to the personnel on leave, being one of the sectors that fared best at the parity level without layoffs. These measures only harm essential workers in the framework of covid.”

Another point of conflict is that of wages. The sector is in a compulsory conciliation with the UTA due to the parity discussion. However, today is payday and the subsidies that are paid in the first week did not enter. “At the end of tomorrow -for today- this would cause a strike if the majority of the companies do not pay. Although there is compulsory conciliation dictated, it is by the parity. The non-payment of salaries enables the union to an automatic strike, "they explained from a company.

Two weeks ago the UTA had threatened a 24-hour strike due to the joint discussion and at that time the Ministry of Labor issued the mandatory conciliation.

As Infobae learned, at that time they managed to bring positions closer together and agree on two proposals with the chambers that bring together transport entrepreneurs. On the one hand, they accepted “the payment of $15,000 in three equal installments of $5,000 each to close the 2020 joint venture.” This is a non-remunerative compensation that was granted only once to balance the percentage lost as a result of inflation. These values ​​were also included for the assets of next March, April and May.

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