Carlos Tomada
PEOPLE PROFILE is published every Tuesday and describes the professional background of key people emerging in the political and economic scenario.
Who is Carlos Tomada?
Labour minister in Argentina. Tomada is charged with solving two of the country’s
most pressing problems: unemployment and underemployment (floating around the
30% mark) and the confrontation between the `piqueteros’ (marginalised
groups) and the government over viable social and economic assistance.
Why watch him?
Last Thursday, he was besieged in the labour ministry in Buenos Aires after
200 piqueteros blocked the entrances and exits to the building. He was incarcerated
in the ministry until five o’clock in the morning. The government of Néstor
Kirchner, still enjoying a post-electoral honeymoon, with all social sectors,
has condemned the piqueteros, a living emblem of social protest in Argentina
since the end of the 1990s.
The file:
Born: 4 May 1948
Place of birth: Buenos Aires, Argentina
Education:
Qualified in law from the University of Buenos Aires (UBA) in 1973. Carried
out postgraduate studies in industrial relations, labour problems and labour
relations, supported by the International Labour Organization (ILO), the University
of Castilla La Mancha and the University of Bologna in 2000.
Public life:
Since he turned 30, his professional life his been centred on labour relations
as an advisor, investigator, manager, consultant, official and university lecturer
Timeline:
1986 Hired consultant of the ILO and the Friedrich Ebert foundation for
technical assistance, in Argentina and abroad, on labour relations.
1988 Lectures at the UBA on labour relations 1987-1988 National director
of labour relations
1995 Postgraduate teaching at the centre for advanced studies and the
economic science faculty at the UBA
2002 Labour secretary under labour minister Alfredo Atanosof during the
provisional presidency of Eduardo Duhalde
2003 Labour minister under President Néstor Kirchner
Strong points
He is a recognised labour consultant with strong links to the private sector
and trade unions. He has a lot of experience in conflict negotiation and mediation.
In the political arena, his ties with the powerful Peronist apparatus in the
province of Buenos Aires are strong.
Weak points
He is suddenly on unfamiliar ground. The piqueteros are characterised by the
unpredictability of their actions. Tomada is experienced in dealing with well-organised
trade unions and social organisations but he is now struggling with the same
problem that afflicted his predecessors: how to establish rules of negotiation
with groups characterised by their divisiveness, and extremist claims and tactics.
The piqueteros are quite happy to carry out impromptu protest actions like last
Thursday, when he was prevented from leaving his ministry.
Prospects
By deciding to take on the piqueteros, Tomada has transformed what was an uneasy
truce between the government and these unemployed groups into the first social
battle of Kirchner’s administration. The piqueteros have for two years
cut the main avenues and access routes into Buenos Aires on a daily basis, causing
chaos in the city and forcing the government to seek a balance between the population’s
mounting frustration at this form of protest and the fear of unleashing the
police to clamp down on the piqueteros. During the Duhalde administration, a
bungled effort by the police to disperse a piquetero march resulted in two deaths.
Tomada has the tough task of preventing the piqueteros from becoming a social
time bomb for Kirchner.