Unions challenge Lacalle Pou’s government with a month full of strikes in Uruguay

Uruguay he lived a month of June full of trade union mobilizations and strikes from different sectors of work demanding wage improvements, among other requests, with an eye to the showdown that the government of Luis Lacalle Pou (center-right) must deliver by 30.

with a general strike “in defense of the quality of work and remuneration” convened for July 7 in sight, the unions that make up the Uruguayan trade union center, PIT-CNT, began this June to make their claims heard at a key moment.

Meanwhile, the coalition government is working submit a new liability invoicein which the Administration reviews the budget allocations of the last year and adjusts them, if deemed necessary.

In the streets the atmosphere will be “moved”the president of the Federation of Public Health Officers (FFSP), Martín Pereira, assures the Efe Agency, who points out that the list of workers called to paralyze the activities is long and covers both the public and the private sector.

On the roads

In addition to the transport and industry strikes on June 6 and 9, there will be, for example, one of the state officials scheduled for this Thursday, with the express support of private companies in the health sector, and another of the masons, on 29.

The closest is the strike in education which, explains the general secretary of the PIT-CNT and reference of the federation of FUM teachers, Elbia Pereira, responds with a heartfelt loss of salary in the industry.

“For two years, officials from different education sectors have been losing purchasing power based on our salaries,” he says, noting that although the government “acknowledges” the situation, “sadly” did not put the question “on the table” from the perspective of responsibility.

While denouncing that education deals with overcrowded classrooms in the face of a two million dollar cut, Pereira argues that the one taken by the authorities “is not the way forward” and stresses that there will be a “great march on the day of the strike. . “

Along the same lines, the president of the FFSP underlines that this Thursday the health workers, applauded in the hardest months of the pandemic, They will march to improve the work and he says he expects massive support “from the citizens themselves”, as this also applies to him.

Likewise, he hopes the government will react and provide a response to the workers.

“These are the workers (…) who in the midst of the pandemic and the crisis have put (kept) all the services in the bank (…), so we are convinced that, after the great mobilizations, the government will have to listen and change its position“, points out.

clear beads

Half a month after the deadline for submitting the authorities’ proposal to the Uruguayan parliament, the uncertainty exceeds expectations, since, for the economist Gabriela Mordecki, the complex inflationary picture can play a key role.

It is that, he says, although the government has announced “an advance in the recovery of public salaries and pensions”, it is not known whether it will subsequently impose a discount that implies a recovery of the salary. “smaller”.

On the other hand, the director of the Institute of Economics of the Faculty of Economics and Administration of the University of the Republic welcomes “big numbers” public accounts.

Given that the Executive has reached its goal of fiscal deficit, for Mordecki the unknown is whether he will bet, as in previous years, on “zero spending” or, already with the Coronavirus Fund of about 700 million programmed by the pandemic off the table, it will allow for greater spending in sensitive areas, such as education.

From another point of view, the political scientist Antonio Cardarello sees the opposition, whose main force is the Broad Front (FA, left), which ruled Uruguay between 2005 and 2020 and which today is chaired by the former leader of the PIT-CNT Fernando Pereira, on fertile ground to make his weight countas a fundamental ally of the trade union movements.

According to Cardarello, the FA has “historically” been able to use economic issues as the center of the debate and, after a difficult start following the 2019 electoral defeat, arrives in 2022 “reinforced” in its character of opposition forceso you can use the moment in your favor.

For the academic, however, the Government has a clear “road map” and remains “attentive” to political changes in a scenario in which must “give a certain answer” to mobilized workers if he wants this to translate in the long term into “electoral probabilities that can improve” in the run-up to the 2024 presidential election.

EFE agency

PB