Patience. Noun: 1 the capacity to accept or tolerate delay, trouble, or suffering without getting angry or upset:
you can find bargains if you have the patience to sift through the dross – Oxford Dictionary.

Yesterday was all about waiting. I went to work at 3pm as usual and the Labour Ministry meeting with UTPBA (union) and AmFin (management) was scheduled for 3.30pm in Callao. Others who start later than I do – the sports desk, for example – went to Callao as the meeting wouldn’t interfere with their schedule. There have already been a few difficult and threatening moments so it was decided at Wednesday’s union meeting that those who started earlier should not be put under any pressure.

The Labour Ministry put its proposal on the table. If we, the Buenos Aires Herald, slammed it down, we would immediately return to work for two weeks, then go back to square one in terms of negotiations and eventually find ourselves in an obligatory conciliation situation enforced by the Ministry.

But if we agreed to the proposal, AmFin then has to either agree to the Ministry’s suggestion, or improve on it, by 1pm Monday.

We agreed to it. Which is why patience will be my greatest virtue this weekend.

Strike four
The fourth consecutive strike took on a minimal angle to say the least. Fittingly, there were four of us, given that the rest of the team was at the Labour Ministry. Four extra freelance bodies were drafted in to replace staff. But by 6.30pm, given our almost unanimous agreement to the Ministry’s proposal, we returned to work, suspending the strike until Monday.

Pay. Shunce.