Transporters in Uruguay go to another day of unemployment

Interdepartmental transport workers in Uruguay staged a third 24-hour strike on Friday to demand higher wages and better working conditions.

It is expected that the work stoppage and the interruption of service will be accompanied by a mobilization scheduled for this afternoon in front of the main interdepartmental transport station in the capital, Montevideo.

The workers also announced another day of unemployment on December 23. In all cases, they will reject the collective bargaining agreement signed between employers and the government of President Louis Lacalle Poe.

They denounce the parties’ neglect of their demands for an increase in salaries. In this regard, they affirm that the signed agreement attests that there will be more salary loss over the coming months.

Last year, interdepartmental transport workers suffered wage losses of 13 percent. However, employers and the government only have the will to give them a 1.3 percent raise.

It became clear during the past hours that the National Union of Workers and Transport Workers (Unott) is considering whether to call a general strike in the coming weeks.

Unott’s leader, Juan Arellano, told the press that there was no progress in negotiating salaries or resolving the status of workers who had been on unemployment insurance for two years.

During the strike on December 10, police fired rubber bullets at close range and suppressed protesters near the Tres Cruces station, injuring a worker.