2024-09-05 23:33:37
Interprovincial transporters have called for a national strike on July 16 and 17, 2024, to protest against the elimination of gasoline subsidies and insecurity on the roads.
The government of Daniel Noboa is preparing to face its first national strike, if the call of the main interprovincial transport union is fulfilled. The concrete announcement is a work stoppage planned for mid-July in Ecuador.
The National Federation of Public Passenger Transport Cooperatives of Ecuador (Fenacotip) confirmed to PRIMICIAS that ““they will turn off the engines” on July 16 and 17, 2024. As announced in a press conference in Guayaquil, the measure is due to two specific reasons: the discontent over the elimination of gasoline subsidies, and the insecurity on the country’s roads.
“In honour of the lives lost, of the people who have died, whether they are users or transporters, we must turn off the engines. We cannot continue working under these conditions,” announced Abel Gómez, head of Fenacotip. The union said bluntly that it rejects all the insecurity it faces on the roads and the recent crimes against drivers.
«While we are at the (dialogue) tables, our people are being persecuted, (…) users are assaulted and units are intercepted. Abel Gómez, president of Fenacotip.
Although the Government had announced compensation for the withdrawal of fuel, this included light transport, such as taxi drivers, and not the interprovincial union. On July 3, representatives of light transport ruled out stopping work after reaching new agreements with the Government. With the lifting of subsidies, a gallon of Extra and Ecopaís gasoline costs USD 2.72, due to the increase of USD 0.26 in the price per gallon.
However, Gómez from Fenacotip argued that these compensations have not favored them. Rather, he stated that the cost of a gallon of diesel, the fuel used by interprovincial buses, has increased every month until reaching USD 1.90 today. On the other hand, PRIMICIAS learned that a new front of urban transporters in Guayaquil, different from Fetug, supports the protest of interprovincial drivers.
The demands of Fenacotip
Fenacotip is one of the interprovincial bus transport unions in Ecuador, and was created in 1982 with members of cooperatives nationwide. Since the end of 2022, under the government of Guillermo Lasso, the group has demanded protection on the roads, following the rise in robberies and homicides of drivers. Even in October 2023, together with the heavy transport federation, the union asked then-President Lasso to militarize several of the most conflictive roads, such as the Quevedo ring road. “Crime is everywhere, we have no security or roads,” added Fenacotip manager Miguel Bonilla on Tuesday.
By: PRIMICIAS