MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Uruguayan unions go on strike, again demanding shorter working hours and wage increases

Union leader Abdala also said that the 48-hour work week leads to the fact that many times workers cannot follow up on the difficulties of childhood and adolescence of their children. Photo: PIT-CNT

Uruguay's trade union central, the PIT-CNT, carried out this Tuesday a partial four-hour strike with a mobilization, in which it again called for a law to reduce the working day from 48 to 40 hours a week.

“We challenge the public debate that is necessary for our people to have all the clear fundamentals of what we consider to be the main labor law to be approved in the immediate future.”

This was stated by the president of the PIT-CNT, Marcelo Abdala, during the speech he gave to the thousands of workers who mobilized and then rallied outside the Ministry of Economy and Finance of the South American country.

Accordingly, he added that this would be the most important labor law of the 21st century and challenged the political parties to vote for it in Parliament.

Abdala also said that the 48-hour work week leads to the fact that many times workers cannot go to pick up their children from school nor can they follow up on the difficulties of childhood and adolescence “in extremely complex times”.

Read also: Unemployment keeps dropping in Uruguay

“It would mean for the male and female worker to gain life, to gain family time, to gain time for training, recreation, study, sports, to accompany their family and gender equity”, explained the president of the trade union center to the workers.

On the other hand, during the strike “against the model of inequality”, Abdala also spoke about the social security reform that was implemented in Uruguay and said that this was an “antagonistic” measure to the initiative to reduce the working day.

“The reform is the most brutal form of adjustment to the rights and income of the great majorities of the working people,” he concluded.

Last August 10, the PIT-CNT approved to promote a plebiscite with the objective of modifying some changes made by the Social Security Reform Law such as, for example, the increase of the retirement age from 60 to 65 years.

Other reasons for the strike are the “grossly inadequate” wage guidelines presented by the government for the tenth round of the Wage Council.

EFE