This Thursday, August 4, the Representative Table of the PIT-CNT, the management area of the workers’ union, met with the task of analyzing the government’s bill on social security reform.
In the first instance, the workers’ union entrusted the Secretariat to prepare a “great mobilization” in defense of human rights, linked to attempts to define partisan social representation in the National Institution for Human Rights and the Ombudsman’s Office (INDDHH), which will be coordinated with the Association of Relatives of Uruguayans Detained-Disappeared, with the Association of Former Political Prisoners of Uruguay – Crysol and all the organizations linked to human rights.
The mobilization will also include a broad platform referring to: “The fight for the generation of quality jobs; reduce famine, because inflation in July was one of the highest in recent months, reaching almost 10% annually and people are not making ends meet; in defense of collective bargaining and wages; against the process of privatization of public companies and especially because of the deep concern about the preliminary draft of the Social Security Reform Law presented by the President of the Republic, Luis Lacalle Pou”, explained the president of the PIT-CNT, Marcelo Abdala .
general strike
In this sense, the Representative Table of the PIT-CNT raised for the consideration of its affiliates, the possibility of carrying out a “great general strike of 24 hours, for the end of August or the beginning of September.”
Subsidiaries have 15 days to make a statement. That Thursday, August 18, a definition will be adopted in this regard, but the carrying out of the general strike has “great legitimacy,” said Abdala.
The president of the workers’ union questioned President Lacalle’s “ignorance and ignorance” not of a union, as he said, but of the PIT-CNT, which is a convention, it is a union of workers.
“It is about the ignorance or none of nothing more and nothing less than the working class of this country. We are very sorry because we never participated in co-governing, whoever is in government, but we do participate in the Board of Directors of the Social Security Bank (BPS), because since 1992 a constitutional article has been fulfilled that establishes that in The Board of Directors of the BPS not only participates the political directorate, but also businessmen, retirees and workers”, he commented.
There is an eloquent ignorance of the government towards the working class
In this sense, he added that despite the fact that not all the workers affiliated with the PIT-CNT are in the BPS, because there are also other funds, “the representation of the workers in the state pension agency, which was through the List that presented by the union central, had more than 420 thousand votes, being that not all the working population votes. It is an eloquent ignorance of the government towards the working class”.
Abdullah said that unemployment 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 there is inequality.
In this sense, Abdala indicated that “there are people who can deposit 9 billion dollars in the financial system and other people who cannot make ends meet. 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.”
There are people who can deposit 9 billion dollars in the financial system and other people who can’t make ends meet
He stated that although they had not yet received the project officially from the government, it was published by the media and is on the web page of the Presidency, so they have had the opportunity to know in a general way its contents.
A project that is wrong from the beginning
“It is clear that for vast sectors of the population the retirement age and the working age are increasing and pensions are decreasing. So, this project is wrong from its base, because it tries to solve the problems of an alleged deficit of the BPS without analyzing the financing”, said Abdala
“For what reasons, if the International Labor Organization (ILO) said that it would be convenient for capital to contribute more than workers or at most that both contribute the same, in Uruguay a worker, a worker, contributes 15% and employers 7.5%”, he stated.
It was also asked: “If the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) has stated that only in road transport there are 120 million dollars per year of evasion, why not find a way to improve financing?”.
The union leader assured that it is a preliminary project that is wrong, insofar as it does not analyze the financing.
“A serious reform is necessary. In this world, the richest 1% have the same wealth as 3.7 billion human beings. If we were deeply interested in going against inequality, we would have social security for a while, ”she questioned.
For this reason, Abdala proposed that the reform should cover financing, benefits in a comprehensive manner, because social security is not only retirement, it is coverage from before birth to after the death of the person and covers a set of aspects, such as: impoverished and vulnerable early childhood, disability, the National Care System, topics on which this project says nothing.
It is only a pension reform and not a comprehensive reform of social security, which, furthermore, does not arise from social dialogue and is poorly done.
Towards the People’s Congress
On the other hand, Abdala said that the PIT-CNT comes from a process of action to defend the great majority of the working people, and if there is an adjustment policy that is detrimental to the rights and income of the great majority of the working people In Uruguay there are tools that involve not only dialogue and negotiation, but also mobilization and struggle.
“We are acting firmly to strengthen the Intersocial, which is where all the country’s social organizations are located, and at the same time we are going to a great People’s Congress so that the program and the level of popular organization of an economic policy and a set of policies that are not to reduce and eliminate people’s rights, but to expand them, are defined”, he announced.
It is estimated that the People’s Congress could meet in the middle of next year so that the people can define a perspective of transformation, productive and democratic development.
