A group of picketers led by Raul Castells was involved in incidents with police outside a Buenos Aires supermarket in the Constitucion neighborhood.
Castells was detained by police, according to trusted sources from the piquetero group Independent Movement for Pensioners and Unemployed (MIJD). The demonstrators were protesting at the local Coto located at Lima and Garay.
The events began when, with Castells leading, the demonstrators entered the premises to deliver a petition and, according to Nina Pelozo, the picket-leader’s wife, they were refused by the management of the company. Threats were then made to take the premises.
The petition was to protest layoffs, and demand job security for employees of the supermarket. Protesters inside the store were accused of taking money from a cash register which further strained the situation.
The picket leader, who has previously organized these kinds of protests and roadblocks to demand food, today became a virtual union leader, as he forced himself into union related dsicussions.
Besides protesting the layoffs, Castells complained that the supermarket chain wants to stay open “until midnight on the 24th, 25th and 31st of December, as well as the 1st of January.” According to the picket leader turned union leader, “Workers want to spend the holidays with their families and Coto must understand this.”
