You Heard it on No Te Duermas
On the radio program, Mariano Borras, a member of the Centro de Profesionales Técnicos de La Matanza (Center of Technical Professionals of La Matanza), discussed how they worked to recover the institution.
Tomás Modini
@ModiniTomas
At the beginning of the interview on No Te Duermas, Mariano Borras shared: “It was a year and a half of work during which we had to normalize some issues that were beyond us at the time when we took over. To prevent losing the institution, we had to normalize the paperwork from 2007 and 2008, 2011. We are technicians, we handle administrative tasks, and we usually keep the paperwork in order; what was missing was the formality of being legally recognized.”
“We were poorly advised by a lawyer we had, who told us to do the financial reports and then submit them all together. When these people came in, wanting to normalize things on their own, and saw that we hadn’t submitted six years of continuous reports, that’s when they decided to take over the normalization and try to push us out,” he added.
The Registry Process with the Institution’s Members
Regarding the process, he explained: “We already had the financial reports done and submitted” and that “we also carried out a normalization with the intervention of a private legal entity, not an appointed trustee.”
“With that, we normalized a new social registry. We contacted all those who had been members since 2007 and before, and then we called a second round for anyone who might have been a member or who qualified to be a member according to the statute,” he continued.
He also clarified: “To ensure people joined, we set a minimum attendance requirement. If you register 700 people, few actually show up, and you won’t get a quorum for the normalization. So, we first normalized with 70 members whom we knew would attend the assembly, and then held another short meeting to keep the project moving forward.”
The Work of the Center
On the other hand, the interviewee described the work they do: “Today, the Centro de Técnicos is restructured as an institution that represents the technicians of La Matanza, as well as final-year students from technical schools, because they are already future professionals. They join as adherent members and become active members once they receive their diploma.”
“We had to adapt to the needs of the community. In 2018, we saw that the entity meant to represent us, the College of Technicians, was constantly making resolutions that went against our needs. So, we started down a more union-based path rather than just being an association where professionals come together to explore new technologies.”
He then emphasized, “In 2018, we took the first strike in our history, which was to halt the College’s activities to demand that a colleague who had passed away be granted a pension or coverage.”
“The second strike we took was to demand the reinstatement of colleagues who had been dismissed from their jobs for political reasons,” and added that “both actions were successful at the time.”
“Our work has evolved from a union focus. Today, when we sit down to talk to the municipality, it’s not the College that does it, it’s the Centro de Técnicos. And that’s really important for our goals and the struggles we face,” he concluded.
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