Under the slogan “against the model of inequality”, the main demands of the PIT-CNT were: work and salary increases, a comprehensive, dignified and supportive social security reform, a budget for public education and for housing and health. The Minister of Labor, Pablo Mieres, questioned the membership figure of more than one million people given by the president of the PIT-CNT, Marcelo Abdala. The Minister of Labor and Social Security, Paul Mieresanalyzed the day of unemployment 24-hour general call for this Thursday by the PIT-CNT. “It has been a general strike very similar to all strikes,” the head of the MTSS told Underlined.
Mieres questioned the adhesion figure of more than a million people given by the president of the workers’ union, Marcelo Abdalaat a press conference around noon when the day was averaging.
“I don’t know what criteria Abdala uses to measure the number of people. There is no way to establish how many people he joined. I would say, in general terms, it is a strike similar to all the general strikes that there have been, ”he replied.
Mieres said that during the day there were activities in various areas such as commercial, and in public and private offices. And that the impact was seen in transport with repercussions on the mobility of people. “Obviously the impact is always felt in a reduction, not elimination, of transportation,” he said, with emergency services and taxis running.
“In the interior of the country, unemployment always has a much smaller impact,” he said. “So nothing new. Simply, one day that Uruguay was affected in the functioning of its normal activity and particularly in education, where we have already been affected by a series of conflict measures. One more day of missing classes,” he added.
Mieres indicated that “the salary recovery process is taking place” and rejected that there are 30 months of loss of purchasing power, because he said that until July 1, 2020, the salary guideline of the previous government was in force. The minister stated that the salary guideline began to show a loss in the first half of 2021, “it is exaggerated, it does not take into account that employment has recovered to pre-pandemic levels,” he said.
“There is an interest in generating a panorama of catastrophe, of a serious situation. Uruguay has its problems and no one disputes that there has been a drop in the purchasing power of wages for a good part of the workers; not at all,” she stressed. Mieres indicated that a quarter of formal private workers had no loss in the purchasing power of wages and in another quarter the loss is less than 1%.
“Free and voluntary” membership
The president of PIT-CNT Marcelo Abdala had assured earlier in a press conference that “much more than a million” people adhered to the general strike 24 hour national this Thursday.
At a press conference together with the vice president of the trade union center Joselo López and the general secretary Elbia Pereira they made an evaluation of what the strike march was like until noon.
“There is an enormous adherence in all branches of activity,” said Abdala. “They are participating in this strike, joining freely and voluntarily, much more than 1 million easterners, Uruguayans and Uruguayans,” he stressed, and said that “in more than 100 places, throughout the territory, in addition to Montevideo, they are building neighborhoods and dialogue with the people”. “It is a very powerful signal, very strong that the trade union movement and the intersocial movement are emitting. A very strong sign that national wealth has already recovered to pre-pandemic levels. However, the salary mass, salaries and pensions, not only do not accompany the growth of the gross domestic product, but we have been enduring a salary reduction of around 4%”, added Abdala, and pointed against “a growth model that excludes ”. “Inequality is growing. This is the center of the mobilization of the PIT-CNT and the general strike. The gold mesh are the only beneficiaries. It’s not all the same for us. Some don’t have anything to eat,” said Abdala.
