by IWU-FI
15 September 2021
The PIT-CNT (Central Union) is calling for a General Strike on Wednesday, 15 September. Teachers, taxi drivers, workers of the Uruguayan Workers University, labourers and bus drivers, among others, will join the strike.
The trade union confederations are calling for this General Strike in a strong austerity programme imposed by Lacalle Pou, who took office in 2020 before the first cases of COVID-19 in the country. As soon as he took office, he launched austerity measures with the Law of Urgent Consideration that promoted the first cuts in public spending. Amid the pandemic, he continued with these measures by taking to parliament the budget law for the next period, which foresees a strong austerity plan in the public sector, considering false accumulated inflation.
While they cut health and education, allocating almost 0% of public spending, they added salary cuts and job losses and projected inflation that would exceed by over 3 points announced by the government. Lacalle Pou prioritised the increase in his per diem as president and a series of measures that privilege banks.
These measures have led to many workers, women, and children falling below the poverty line. Increases in the prices of the grocery basket and the danger utility companies would undergo for lack of state funding make up the anti-popular austerity plan promoted by Lacalle Pou’s government.
In this context, the trade union confederations are calling for a strike with significant support. Transport will not stop with Unott (National Union of Transport Workers). It will be a day of demands to the government for wages, decent jobs, housing, and in defence of the public sector, health and education.
