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LATIN AMERICA |
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450,000 Chilean Public Employees Launch
Strike
SANTIAGO – Close to 450,000 Chilean public
employees went on a 48-hour strike demanding
an across-the-board wage hike of 8 percent.
The civil servants, represented by the ANEF
union, also demand the establishment of a
monthly minimum wage of 250,000 pesos ($460)
and regularized status for temporary workers
and contractors, who don’t receive health
coverage or other benefits.
The strike has caused problems for the
public in state agencies.
It has also halted activity in hospitals and
doctors’ offices, where according to the
unions, 80 percent of the workers have
joined the strike, though skeleton crews
remained on duty to deal with emergencies.
Some 2,000 public employees also met Tuesday
in the Plaza Los Heroes in downtown Santiago
for the main event of this first day of the
strike.
ANEF leader Raul de la Puente accused the
ministers of finance, Andres Velasco, and of
labor, Claudia Serrano, of not keeping
President Michelle Bachelet’s promise to
improve working conditions for civil
servants.
De la Puente also considered “unacceptable”
the government’s offer of a 2.5 percent wage
increase for 2010.
“The negotiation will be difficult if we’re
starting from this basis,” he said.
Interior Minister Edmundo Perez Yoma
criticized the strike by pointing out that
talks are already underway between the
authorities and union leaders.
“This is something that has no
justification. The only ones who will be
hurt here are those who use public
services,” Perez Yoma said, adding that the
call to go on strike was an “extremely bad”
decision.
Negotiations will begin again this Friday,
and next week Congress will analyze ANEF’s
demands. EFE
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