After the public announcement made by the President of the Republic, the Federation of Officials of OSE (FFOSE) expressed its “concern” and is in a state of alert and in the process of evaluating the steps to follow in the legal and union field.
Federico Kreimerman (photo) told the PIT-CNT Portal that there are too many “half truths” in what has been announced by the Executive Branch. Likewise, he questioned that the same private actor be granted “the design, construction, financing and maintenance of all the infrastructure that will supply part of the drinking water to Montevideo. From a financial point of view, it also causes us concern, since beyond water, there is a huge financial business”.
For the president of FFOSE, the president’s announcement ensuring that OSE will not have to pay for this project “is partial” since “the reality is that the agency will not pay during the construction of the plant but will pay an annual fee of several million of dollars for tens of years. This is how the business is planned. The financial model, as they call it, determines that OSE will end up paying much more than the real cost of the plant with the established canon. The private will put the financial risk of building without charging, but then they will charge everything. He is going to charge what the work came out plus the financial interest. This is similar to the formats of public-private participation with water”, he remarked.
Regarding the consultation with the President of the Republic if the plant will operate with OSE workers, Kreimerman questioned the fact that “from 2018 to date no personnel have entered and more than 900 jobs have been lost. In addition, this Board of Directors, following the orders of the OPP, not only stopped hiring people but also eliminated jobs. Year after year it has eliminated two thirds of the jobs that it does not replace. Therefore we do not know how they will solve this issue. According to the government, 200 workers per year will enter, but the union does not know how this will be carried out in circumstances like the current ones. “Only the year 2023 remains, because 2024 is an electoral year and personnel cannot enter, so we do not know how they will comply with yesterday’s announcement that 200 per year will enter. It should be remembered that OSE is missing some 800 officials, “he said.
With respect to Lacalle Pou’s statement that this project will facilitate sanitation for some 60 localities, Kreimerman issued a warning call for “its quality.” According to the amounts that are handled, he assessed, “treatment plants are not going to be built, but very simple solutions that can hardly guarantee environmental quality after what the system to be built throws into the water courses.”
Kreimerman affirmed that once again “we are facing half-truths: they tell us that there are solutions for drinking water and there are, a private company is going to do it. So it’s not a privatization? If it is. An infrastructure is being built that will be operated entirely by a private party, beyond the fact that it is said that they will operate it with OSE officials. But OSE will also end up paying a lot of money”.
Finally, the president of FFOSE recalled that the OSE board last day called an “extraordinary” meeting, without announcing it and in the middle of the partial general strike of the PIT-CNT, when the organization was empty of officials. “When the event ended and we went to the OSE headquarters, we found the doors locked. They locked themselves up to vote on the project in a hurry, which leads us to think that if things are being done well, nothing should be hidden.
Source: PIT-CNT website.
