The president of the PIT-CNT, Marcelo Abdala, has said that the strike is “against the model of inequality”, because the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) grows, but simultaneously the share of wages in national wealth shrinks. . The same amount of employment is generated as there was before the pandemic, but they are of low quality, there is a salary reduction and inequality.
Abdala indicated that “there are people who can deposit 9 billion dollars in the financial system and other people who cannot make ends meet with their salary. Not only is there no spillover, but this regime works like a funnel that extracts resources from those below so that they go to the top of society.” In addition to the increase in poverty, unemployment and inflation.
claim platform
The demand platform of the trade union center includes different aspects: “Against hunger and adjustment, for decent and quality work, for salary, against the pension reform, in defense of Collective Bargaining and in defense of public companies and their social role.
In this framework, the president of the Federation of Public Health Officials (FFSP), Martín Pereira, stated that the union measure is “for work, for the real salary increase, the increase in retirement, pensions and the national minimum wage ”.
He said that it is “against the increase in the cost of living, the lack of work and the increase in the retirement age”, which would go from the current 60 years to 65 years and gradually, according to a preliminary draft of the Executive Branch. “For a social security reform at the service of a dignified life and for the elimination of the AFAPS”.
He added that the labor union rejects the criteria of the Executive Branch presented in the Collective Bargaining.
Pereira referred to the importance of granting a “decent budget for public education, greater investment for the University of the Republic (UDELAR), and for science and technology”, and in rejection of the “loss of rights in the Surrender of Accounts”, which is up for vote in the Chamber of Deputies.
The union leader also stressed the importance of fighting for a “greater budget for housing, and meeting the claim of 2% for the construction of cooperative housing.”
“It is a general strike due to greater state investment in the central administration and public companies; and for relaunching the National Care System”, said the union leader.
Human rights
Another aspect that is always present in the demands of the working class is human rights. In this sense, Pereira said that the strike is against impunity, for human rights. “No to house arrest for those involved in State terrorism and crimes against humanity”, which occurred in the framework of the past civic-military dictatorship (1973-1985) and its previous years.
It is also a strike for the defense of the National Institution for Human Rights and Ombudsman’s Office (INDDHH), whose new members were recently elected by the General Assembly for a period of five years; and for the care of the prison emergency and in rejection of the increase in social violence and gender inequality.
