Cuartango: 'I am negotiating with a gun to the head'

BA province Labor Minister Oscar Cuartango has questioned education unions’ strike calls announced for the upcoming days saying he will be sitting on the negotiating table with “a gun on the head”.

“They have already decreed a 96-hour walkout. I am going to sit to negotiate with a gun to the head. It is not the way to negotiate, it’s almost extortion”, the official said in statements to a local radio station and described this year’s salary negotiations with teachers as “atypical” and “specially tense”.

Cuartango added that the provincial government expects classes to start next week and did not rule out a mandatory conciliation scenario.

“We explained that the 17 per cent was the best possible offer. We have to have responsibility to make an offer that we can pay. We continually talk with the national government”, head of the BA province Labor Ministry stated.