Some of the country’s trade unions and associations are willing to go on strike and take other actions in the event that the State does not give them an immediate response about the salary increase that they have requested throughout this year in the streets
Photos: Maria de los Angeles Graterol
«I do not want a show, nor a comic. What I want is to be paid in foreign currency.” With this slogan he started the protest of the Venezuelan workers in Caracas this May 1, Labor Day. There was no celebration, but rather demands to the administration of Nicolás Maduro, who, through its policies and different mechanisms —such as the instructive Onapre— has violated their labor rights, far from defending the working class that former President Hugo Chávez boasted of. protect.
The health, education, and retirees and pensioners sectors took to the streets en masse in the capital to, once again, request that the minimum wage be equal to the price of the basic food basketwhich cost $510.88 in March, that is, 98 times the salary of a Venezuelan, according to the Center for Documentation and Social Analysis of the Venezuelan Federation of Teachers (Cendas-FVM). But this request, at least this year, has been made almost daily in the days of protests that began on January 9. And because they are aware that a “decent” salary increase will most likely not be given, then they asked for “unemployment now.”
“It is an issue that they play to wear and tear (the Maduro government) and we to stay on the street. We are going to continue fighting to achieve unity, which we are seeing here right now. The unions are the hope that this town represents. We have decided not only to march for living wages but to organize in case we don’t get an immediate answer. Both the workers and we are in the streets with more than 5,000 people in the march,” Mauro Zambrano, a union leader of hospitals and clinics in the Capital District, told TalCual.
Although initially the march, which began at the Torre Credicard de Chacaito at 10:00 am, had as its end point the Prosecutor’s Office, in downtown Caracas, the National Police prevented them from reaching there. On several occasions the demonstrators tried to knock down the picket line. They moved it together forcefully and shouted to the police forces behind “police, listen, this is your fight too”. The call was ignored. But the hope that they would side with the workers continued: «Open the doors. What is the fear? We have banners, not bullets»; “This is a peaceful protest,” they said in unison.
At least five National Police pickets were distributed between Chacaito and Bellas Arteswhich was the route taken by the protesters, passing through Solano avenue, the main one in Plaza Venezuela and, later, México avenue.
Thus ended a protest in which these slogans were the most repeated: “And the milk rises, and the meat rises, if the people do not get angry, they will starve to death”; “Let them sound, let the pans sound, the people are hungry and they don’t stop balls.”
The economic context of the country and the financial conditions of the State give all the indications to reason that the salary increase will be well below the desired by the Venezuelan workers and that it will also defraud the union leaders who have proposed amounts that they consider viable.
In January, Delcy Rodríguez, vice president of the Maduro government, said that in “few hours” would make an announcement regarding an increase in the minimum wage. Already, to this May 1st, 106 days have passed and it was never pronounced.
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