Hundreds of workers they defied the rain that wets the Dominican capital this Sunday, May 1, to carry out a demonstration for International Labor Day and establish a position on the issues that keep trade unionists and businessmen facing each other at the negotiating table.
The representatives of the main trade union centers spoke about the reform of the Labor Code and the modification of the right to unemployment, the reformulation of the pension system, the resolution that grants rights to domestic workers, the right to form unions in companies and the establishment of primary care.
“We are here to say no to the businessmen who want to take away our layoffs,” said Gabriel del Rio, president of the Classist Autonomous Trade Union Confederation (CASC). He demanded that the right to dismissal in the new Labor Code not be removed and that, on the contrary, a Code “that can allow us to advance” is achieved.
Jacobo Ramos, president of the National Confederation of workers Dominicans (CNTD), called for the unity of social forces and all workers of the Dominican Republic, and asked them not to break up, because that is the opportunity that, according to him, “the enemies of the workers“to succumb to labor conquests.
Rafael (Pepe) Abreu, president of the National Confederation of Trade Union Unity (CNUS), explained that the union leaders have preferred to dialogue and that is why they have attended all the dialogue tables to which they have been summoned, but he warned “that nobody make a mistake and mistake this for weakness.
He said that the Minister of Labor, Luis Miguel De Camps, assured them that there is no proposal by the Government that threatens the job loss.
The three centrals expressed that they will remain firm and united “against the manifest desires of business sectors to curtail acquired rights of the workers in the Labor Code, which on the date celebrates 30 years of its enactment”.
They indicated that the Social Security Law “cannot work when more than 45% of health expenses are covered by the citizen’s pocket, one of the highest in Latin America.”
“It does not work either as long as Primary Care remains stuck and there is no real desire for its entry into force, much less if one of its main characteristics, such as universality, limps because more than half a million workers of difficult coverage are not protected by said law”, they stated.
They point out that it is equally urgent to introduce changes that increase the amounts of the pensions of AFP affiliates.
Studies cited indicate that 82.4% of the 1,855,277 contributors to the system will receive just 8 thousand pesos, if they meet the 360 contribution quotas, which is equal to 30 years of work.
They affirmed that for this reason they propose to grant non-contributory solidarity pensions and the strengthening of the national health system, so that it responds to the needs of the population.
They reiterated their fight in defense of freedom of association and the right to collective bargaining set forth in the Constitution of the Republic and in conventions 87 and 98 of the International Labor Organization (ILO).
