The wage-bargaining tension at the country’s agro-export docks and the Industrial Belt added a high-voltage chapter on Wednesday, August 19th, 2026 night. The Unión Recibidores de Granos y Anexos de la República Argentina (URGARA) announced the launch of a total indefinite strike of all activities at every port and terminal in the country starting at 10:00 p.m.

However, following a formal request from the companies and the risk of a halt to grain loading and unloading, the Secretariat of Labor of the Ministry of Human Capital of the Nation urgently ordered mandatory conciliation, deactivating the strike and ordering the parties to maintain social peace.

URGARA’s tough demand: “Those who produce the most are those who lose the most”

Through a forceful statement released at the close of the afternoon, URGARA’s union leadership justified the decision to begin direct-action measures due to the lack of progress in wage negotiations with the Cámara de Puertos Privados Comerciales (CPPC).

The union is demanding a salary adjustment that recovers the purchasing power eroded for workers during the months of May, June, July and August of the current year:

“The employers in the port and agro-export sector—benefited by government policies and by historically high levels of activity and production—have chosen to maintain the wage lag of the workers who make this extraordinary performance possible. Faced with such a contrast, it is unacceptable that those who produce the most are those who lose the most,” the union entity criticized, stating that it had exhausted all previous instances of dialogue.

Official intervention: Ruling and hearing for August 25

Faced with the imminent operational blockade at the ports of Greater Rosario (San Lorenzo, Puerto General San Martín and Timbúes), Bahía Blanca and Quequén, the National Directorate of Labor Relations and Regulations—headed by Dr. Mara Agata Mentoro—issued Disposition DI-2026-1035-APN-DNRYRT#MCH within file EX-2026-71761114–APN-CGDTEYS#MCH.

The ministerial resolution establishes the following key points:

• Legal framework: It applies the mandatory conciliation procedure provided for in Law No. 14.786 as of 10:00 p.m. on Wednesday, August 19.
• Immediate cessation of measures: It orders URGARA and the workers it represents to “set aside any direct-action measure they were implementing or planned to implement, providing services in a normal and habitual manner.”
• Employer guarantee: It orders the companies grouped in the CPPC to refrain from taking reprisals, suspensions or modifying the prevailing working conditions.
• Call to a hearing: It ratifies the holding of an official wage-bargaining hearing next Tuesday, August 25 at 2:00 p.m. via a virtual platform, where progress in the salary talks will be evaluated.

With the ministerial order in force, the region’s port terminals are operating normally, although the parties have been warned of severe sanctions in the event of non-compliance with the conciliation.