The Single Union of Dockers and Related Branches (Supra) set this Friday a 24-hour general strike for the port of Montevideo that came into effect at 7:00 p.m.as reported by the union to the Minister of Labor, Pablo Mieres.
It includes a “total paralysis” of the port of Montevideo in operators and terminals (the deposits continue their tasks), explained the leader Álvaro Reinaldo, to Telemundo (channel 12). “Everything will depend on the negotiations that are complicated,” she added.
In the midst of these negotiations, the Ministry of Transport and Public Works (MTOP) communicated directly with the Chilean shareholders and requested that the port operator not reduce the insured average wages for 90 days. Montecon sources informed The Observer that the answer was negative. In turn, they claimed to return to free competition in the port of Montevideoafter the government agreed to extend the concession of Terminal Cuenca del Plata, majority owned by the company Katoen Natie.
“The colleagues of Montecon, now, on June 1, would receive a salary reduction that in some cases is 40%, 30% and even 50%,” Reinaldo claimed. Meanwhile, the Montecon workers union is meeting at the Ministry of Labor, in its building in Ciudad Vieja (Montevideo).
The Supra indicated in an earlier statement that there are delays of more than two days in the arrival of ships at the Container Terminal (Terminal Cuenca del Plata), but denied that it is the result of any union measure, but rather an “overload of worked”.
“Although there was progress in the negotiations and in the proposals presented by the Executive Power, an agreement has not yet been reached with regard to guaranteeing all the affected jobs. Nor the reinsertion in any of the companies” , he pointed out in writing.
