Saúl Ubaldini
Encyclopedia
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
labor leader and parliamentarian for the Peronist Justicialist Party
Justicialist Party
The Justicialist Party , or PJ, is a Peronist political party in Argentina, and the largest component of the Peronist movement.The party was led by Néstor Kirchner, President of Argentina from 2003 to 2007, until his death on October 27, 2010. The current Argentine president, Cristina Fernández de...
.
Ubaldini was born in the Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires is the capital and largest city of Argentina, and the second-largest metropolitan area in South America, after São Paulo. It is located on the western shore of the estuary of the Río de la Plata, on the southeastern coast of the South American continent...
barrio of Mataderos
Mataderos
Mataderos is a barrio in Buenos Aires, Argentina, belonging to the 9th comuna .Located in the west end of the city, its name stem from the livestock market and slaughterhouses ....
, the son of a meat worker and a seamstress. He worked in the processing plants and became involved in the trade union. In 1969 he started work at a small yeast factory and seven years later he was elected the Secretary-General of the small union of beer-industry workers. During the Proceso dictatorship, he was elected general secretary
General secretary
-International intergovernmental organizations:-International nongovernmental organizations:-Sports governing bodies:...
of the CGT
General Confederation of Labour (Argentina)
The General Confederation of Labour of the Argentine Republic is a national trade union centre of Argentina founded on September 27, 1930, as the result of the merge of the USA and the COA trade union centres...
, the trade union umbrella body, in 1979. In the years that followed, he led the "Brasil" fraction of the CGT, which showed a harder line against the military than its "CGT Azopardo" counterpart. He led a march of 10,000 protesters against the dictatorship in 1981, the first large protest of that period.
When democracy returned, he became leader of the CGT in 1986. From this position he launched 13 general strike
General strike
A general strike is a strike action by a critical mass of the labour force in a city, region, or country. While a general strike can be for political goals, economic goals, or both, it tends to gain its momentum from the ideological or class sympathies of the participants...
s against Radical Raúl Alfonsín
Raúl Alfonsín
Raúl Ricardo Alfonsín was an Argentine lawyer, politician and statesman, who served as the President of Argentina from December 10, 1983, to July 8, 1989. Alfonsín was the first democratically-elected president of Argentina following the military government known as the National Reorganization...
's government. http://www.clarin.com/diario/2006/11/20/um/m-01313044.htm However, the CGT's combativeness subsided once Peronism
Peronism
Peronism , or Justicialism , is an Argentine political movement based on the programmes associated with former President Juan Perón and his second wife, Eva Perón...
was back in power. In 1989 Ubaldini was displaced as head of the CGT by supporters of President Carlos Menem
Carlos Menem
Carlos Saúl Menem is an Argentine politician who was President of Argentina from 1989 to 1999. He is currently an Argentine National Senator for La Rioja Province.-Early life:...
. Although he had backed Menem's election campaign publicly, Ubaldini opposed Menem's free market reforms and refused to vacate the CGT building. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=950DE2D8153CF937A25752C1A96F948260
In 1993, Ubaldini stood to be Governor of Buenos Aires Province
Buenos Aires Province
The Province of Buenos Aires is the largest and most populous province of Argentina. It takes the name from the city of Buenos Aires, which used to be the provincial capital until it was federalized in 1880...
, heavily defeated by the Menemist Eduardo Duhalde
Eduardo Duhalde
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. He was elected in 1997 and again in 2001 as a national deputy
Argentine Chamber of Deputies
The Chamber of Deputies is the lower house of the Argentine National Congress. This Chamber holds exclusive rights to create taxes, to draft troops, and to accuse the President, the ministers and the members of the Supreme Court before the Senate....
for Buenos Aires Province
Buenos Aires Province
The Province of Buenos Aires is the largest and most populous province of Argentina. It takes the name from the city of Buenos Aires, which used to be the provincial capital until it was federalized in 1880...
. In his last role he assisted the Planning Minister Julio de Vido
Julio de Vido
Julio Miguel de Vido is an Argentine policy maker, currently the President's Minister of Planning and Public Works.-Biography:...
. He had also been vice president of the international trade union movement CIOSL. http://www.lanacion.com.ar/archivo/Nota.asp?nota_id=860424
He died of lung cancer
Lung cancer
Lung cancer is a disease characterized by uncontrolled cell growth in tissues of the lung. If left untreated, this growth can spread beyond the lung in a process called metastasis into nearby tissue and, eventually, into other parts of the body. Most cancers that start in lung, known as primary...
, aged 69, in Buenos Aires.