Rural workers in Argentina are on strike just as the pear harvest gets under way.

The workers in the Rio Negro area are members of the Uatre union of workers and stevedores and are striking for a 35 per cent pay increase. A lower rise had been agreed through CAFI, the integrated fruit growers’ chamber, but members of the Federación de Productores, which represents 20 per cent of growers in the area, said they could not meet these costs.

Protests have taken place along main roads in the area holding up traffic. It has been announced that a meeting held this week by union and sector representatives with the national ministry for labour did not result in an agreement.

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