Venezuela: with “almost two years without a salary increase” public employees take to the streets

With annual inflation of 189.8% and without salary increases for months, dozens of public employees in Caracas They ask for “freedom and democracy” on the third day of protests of the year held this Tuesday, when they also reiterated your request for salary improvementsin work performance and working conditions.

“What we want now is freedom and democracy and, above all, improvements for our workers,” the president of the Venezuelan Federation of Teachers (FVM), Carmen Teresa Márquez, told EFE during the protest called on the occasion of the 66th anniversary of the overthrow of the dictatorship of Marcos Pérez Jiménez (1953-1958).

On this “emblematic and very important day for Venezuela”, he also asked the Government to resume the discussion collective bargaining and social security improvements by the workers.

For her part, Naucela Gudiño, leader of the College of Nursing Professionals of the Capital District (Caracas), told EFE that, on this “emblematic date”, the fight for the “rights of workers” to protest, to denounce and to join, among others, “any political party, trade union organization and trade union association”.

The president of the Association of Professors of the Central University of Venezuela (UCV), José Gregorio Afonso, denounced “Almost two years have passed without a salary increase”, and ensured that the bonuses granted by the government, which recently increased one from 30 to 60 dollars, have no impact on the calculation of work benefits such as social benefits.

Minimum wage of $3.60

In March 2022, the last increase in the monthly minimum wage was decreed, which brought it to 130 bolivars, today 3.6 dollars at the official exchange rate, while the basic food basket, for a family of five people, It costs more than $500 per month, according to independent estimates.

The workers, according to what Afonso told EFE, are also asking for it to be announced the exact date of the presidential electionsscheduled for the second half of the year, e the opening of electoral lists abroad, as well as the “cessation of the judicialization of politics” in the country.

On January 9, civil servants began another year of demonstrations against the “starvation wages”, a fight that – unions and trade unions warn – they intend to intensify.