Casino workers in Buenos Aires Province are escalating a labor dispute that has been building for months, voting unanimously in a general assembly to authorize a province-wide strike within six days if no agreement is reached.
The resolution, announced by the Asociación Gremial de Empleados de Administración, Maestranza y Servicios (AMS), follows a series of street demonstrations held throughout January and February.
The assembly, held at the garage of Casino Central in Mar del Plata, approved a multi-stage action plan. Workers resolved to hold daily public demonstrations from 8 to 9 p.m., coordinate further action dates with the Asociación de Empleados de Casinos Nacional (AECN) and, if necessary, march on the Instituto Provincial de Lotería y Casinos (IPLyC) headquarters in La Plata, the provincial gaming regulator.
Prior to the assembly, the union had already implemented a work-to-rule campaign under a formal action plan. The directives prohibited workers from performing drop procedures, cashbox exchanges, wardrobe and ceremonial coverage, garage operations and administrative tasks linked to the GDEBA provincial system. Only minimum required duties were to be carried out.
The escalation follows a meeting at the Mar del Plata delegation of the Ministry of Labor, where union representatives met with officials Raúl Calamante and Daniel Buccico. Both committed to continuing dialogue with the relevant authorities, but the union said the response was insufficient.
AMS said: “We will stay in the streets until our demands are heard and translated into concrete responses. We do not accept delays or silence. We demand real solutions.”
At the core of the dispute is a wage recomposition claim the union describes as urgent amid sustained purchasing power erosion driven by inflation. Workers are also demanding productivity bonuses, job reclassification, professional recognition, improvements to IOMA health coverage, updated relocation allowances, modernization of casino operations and a debt relief program.
AMS said: “The patience of the workers is exhausted. The systematic postponement of our demands deepens a situation that is already critical and unsustainable.”
The AMS union has also participated in demonstrations opposing the national labor reform proposed by President Javier Milei’s Government
