Below, Avenida del Libertador with a lot of people, among whom the smell of roasting half-tanks mixed. Above, the clear sky and a flag of the Single National Union of Construction and Annexes (Sunca) that a worker waved strongly from the roof of a building under construction. As those present from below applauded him, a woman said: “Let it be saved because, as they are, they cut it in two minutes.”
Flags of all colors and all unions filled the five blocks between Libertador and Valparaíso and the Legislative Palace. The PIT-CNT leadership was concerned that the cold weather would decrease attendance, but they were satisfied with the adherence to the Workers’ Day event.
The slogan “the people united will never be defeated” and the national anthem began the official act that had political representatives from all ranks in the front row. On behalf of the ruling party, the Secretary of the Presidency, Álvaro Delgado, the Minister of Labor, Pablo Mieres, and the Minister of the Environment, Adrián Peña, were present. In addition, the deputies Pedro Jisdonian (National Party), María Eugenia Rosselló (Colorado Party) and Álvaro Perrone (Open Council). For the opposition, the mayors Carolina Cosse and Yamandú Orsi, former president José Mujica and former senator Lucía Topolansky, the president of the Broad Front, Fernando Pereira —who acknowledged that it was “very difficult” for him to see the act from below the stage— and others legislators.
Diego Battiste
Former President Mujica and former Senator Lucía Topolansky
The general secretary, Elbia Pereira, the secretary for Human Rights, Fernanda Aguirre, and the president of the union, Marcelo Abdala, gave speeches that went back to the origins of the trade union struggle, the communist principles, the recent past, but also criticism and demands for the government of the day. Delgado, Mieres and Peña listened to them without being startled in the front row. In two hours of speech, there was only one applause from the trident of the Executive Power and it was from Mieres, when Pereira referred to the importance of school as a tool for progress. The ministers, more relaxed, made comments among themselves, while the secretary of the Presidency observed the situation more tensely. On more than one occasion they were criticized by members of the public, who shouted that the minister and the government should be ashamed of the situation in the country.
Diego Battiste
Abdala made six proposals to the Executive Power
“The government’s late and insufficient measures to prevent those of us who move the wheel of production from continuing to lose,” said Pereira, who was the first to address the audience present and recalled a verse from the song by Marcos Velásquez: “Some a lot and others nothing, that’s no coincidence.” He stressed: “We go to the store, we go to the supermarket and we can’t” because of the “consolidation of the fall in real wages.” “We don’t put sticks in the wheel, because if we put sticks in the wheel, the wheel won’t work,” he added.
Aguirre, for his part, spoke of the importance of the contribution of the Relatives of Disappeared Detainees and the PIT-CNT’s rejection of the Open Council project so that those prisoners over 65 years of age serve their sentence at home. He also charged the inks against multinational companies, which he accused of collaborating with authorities of the dictatorship to torture civilians during the de facto period. He pointed out that this government established “hostile and back to the people” policies, increasing the president’s salary and lowering that of the workers.
Diego Battiste
Álvaro Delgado, Pablo Mieres and Adrián Peña listening to the speech of the executive secretariat of the PIT-CNT
In addition, he recalled a conversation that he said he had with Mieres in a Tripartite Superior Council where the minister —according to Aguirre’s version— told him: “Yes, Fernanda, they lost (salary) and they are going to lose again because that is how we determined it. U.S”. At that moment, Mieres shook his head and calmly explained to Peña that this never happened.
In his turn, Abdala criticized the social security reform project that implies increasing the retirement age and, on the other hand, submitted six proposals to the Executive Power to improve the situation of the workers. The first is to increase the amount allocated to Family Allowances and the Uruguay Social Card (TUS) in the next Rendering of Accounts. The amount proposed was US$300 million.
He also proposed extending the solidarity days, which end this May. Thirdly, he insisted on the need for an increase in the National Minimum Wage and then emphasized the importance of accelerating public works, arguing that they generate jobs and boost the economy. The last two proposals were the streamlining of the National Housing Plan and that public purchases be made from national companies. Among the demands of the leader was also the “immediate opening of a tripartite negotiation process where all efforts plan to generate quality jobs”
After his presentation, Abdala detailed to The Observer that all their proposals “have funding”. Therefore, they will make public a document with a tax proposal this Monday. He will propose “taxing more those who are capturing extraordinary resources, improving the wealth tax, the export sectors and taxing the deposits of Uruguayans abroad.” These measures will also be transferred to him in the meeting that the PIT-CNT will have this week with President Luis Lacalle Pou.
Mother burst onto the stage and criticized the PIT-CNT for lack of answers for the death of her daughter
“This is out of protocol, my name is Andrea Colombo, I am the mother of Martina Colombo who died this year, on January 7, in a multinational company because they did not take care of her. The PIT-CNT did not treat me as they should have treated me. It was the first worker killed this year,” he said.
Martina Colombo died in an accident, as published by The Observer in February 2022. Colombo, 23, worked at the Palomas Wind Farm, in the department of Salto, and died when the car he was driving overturned on a local road.
“We did not act after the accident, what we offered was to support the PIT-CNT lawyers for the trial that she understands may correspond,” Abdala pointed out.
For her part, the general secretary of the trade union center, Elbia Pereira told The Observer that the National Union of Metal Workers and Related Branches union was already accompanying the woman and also the gender secretariat of the PIT-CNT.
Delgado accused a “tremendously ideological” and “sixties” speech
“When one has such an ideological aspect and everything goes through the same sieve, talking about Yankee anti-capitalism (…) and conditioning that the United States is almost ruling Uruguay… I leave it there, I prefer to try to rescue the positive. Obviously, I do not share anything. From the first to the last sentence I do not share anything. It is a tremendously ideological and very sixties speech,” said the secretary of the Presidency.
In addition, he added: “The PIT-CNT has lately changed in that consideration of having a much more political discourse than it had before. Abdala’s speech focused on some proposals that, at least, are acceptable to write down and study . For me, it was positively based on something that is very important, which is the issue of employment. Then they began to oppose things that are still unresolved, for example the social security reform law.”
Abdala, in dialogue with The Observerreplied: “If by ideological is meant the defense of the class interest of the workers, (then) yes, it was an ideological discourse.”
Among the exhibitors was Juanita Fernández, representative of the Cuban workers’ union, who gave a speech aligned with the policies of Fidel Castro.
Deputy of Cabildo Abierto: “They rebuked us and tried to advance on us”
Deputy Álvaro Perrone was present at the act of the 1river of May and noted that there were people from the public who “insulted and rebuked” him and other members of the ruling party. “There were some people who tried to advance on us, but there were focused people who preferred the act to go well,” he told The Observer.
In addition, he thanked the authorities of the PIT-CNT and the organizers who, according to what he said, received them with cordiality and kindness. Regarding the incidents, he assessed: “We knew it was going to happen, we knew what we were going for, but Cabildo Abierto talks to everyone“.
He argued that he decided to attend the event for the first time in his life because “reading what was said is not the same as being there.” He assured that he takes the point that Abdala made on the great issues that affect workers today (inflation, salary, work, housing and social security).
Perrone defended the project so that prisoners over 65 years of age serve their sentences at home and said that the criticism comes from those who did not read the bill’s statement of reasons. He argued that the chosen age is the one established by the World Health Organization (WHO) to begin considering a patient at risk for covid-19.
