27 fish cutters in Mar del Plata, Argentina protest supply cutoff: raw material halted after nearly 100 million pesos fraud a year ago, last batch of hake stopped for over ten days

27 fish processing workers in Mar del Plata, Argentina, publicly protested the interruption of raw material supply in October 2026, demanding that suppliers Maximiliano Martín and his father Gabriel Martín keep their jobs. According to the Argentine fishing port weekly Revista Puerto on October 13, 2026, the workers directed their protest at Maximiliano Martín — who previously supplied them with hake (merluza) for further processing, but over more than a year gave only false promises and has now stopped delivering raw material, putting the continuity of the workers' jobs at risk.

The workers stressed that Martín is not the owner of the plant where they cut fish. One cutter told Revista Puerto: "The boss has nothing to do with this; he is trying to find other alternatives so we can keep working; the problem lies with the Martíns, Maximiliano and his father Gabriel." Another packer also reiterated that their employer "Rana" has nothing to do with the problems between the workers and the Martín family.

Fearing being blacklisted in some way, and accustomed to the deterioration of their working conditions — the workers say their most basic labor rights have been violated — these workers were unwilling to be photographed, either while protesting at the raw material supplier's home or at the plant where they cut fish. They showed only a placard bearing a photo of Maximiliano and the demand that he keep their jobs.

According to the workers' account, Maximiliano Martín and his father Gabriel previously delivered boxes of fish several times a week to be cut at the "Rana" plant at Martí y Ortiz de Zárate, with the product destined for the domestic market. The workers say their work was normal until last year, when the Martíns claimed to have suffered a fraud of nearly 100 million pesos, after which the Martíns stopped delivering raw material.

One worker said: "We understood the situation and waited about three months for them, but normal supply never resumed. At the holidays they gave us 100,000 pesos as an advance, and afterward deducted 30,000 pesos a week from our wages, and only when we could work three days a week. We still owe 50,000 pesos of that advance; you can imagine how much work we get."

Despite repeated protests and patience from the workers, the fish supplier has stopped delivering the boxes of raw material for cutting. One cutter said: "They don't answer the phone anymore; we know they're sending the fish elsewhere."

The workers last received hake more than ten days ago, and that occasion also saw the last conflict. One worker said: "That batch of fish was very small, garbage... we asked to be paid at least 1,500 pesos per kilo, as they pay elsewhere. In the end he agreed to pay 1,000 pesos, but we haven't seen him since."

The workers also mentioned that "Rana" has now found some work for a cold storage facility, but they don't know how long it will last. They said: "We want Maxi or Gabriel to step up and take responsibility... we waited for them when they suffered the fraud, and now, when there is plenty of fish everywhere, they don't want to give us work and are sending the fish elsewhere to be cut."