Uruguay: Reduction of the working day

2023-10-10 13:53:08

Distribution of working hours between employed and unemployed

Marcelo Abdala, president of the Inter-Union Plenary of Workers – National Convention of PIT CNT Workers, raised the issue of reducing the working day during the partial strike in August. Since then and in the midst of the negotiation of the Wage Councils, fourteen unions that make up the Confederation of Industrial Unions and others have been insisting and stating that the reduction in working hours must be carried out without a salary reduction.

By the Socialist Workers’ Left – Uruguay

In any case, Danilo Dárdano, president of the National Union of Metal Workers and Related Branches (UNTMRA), had to recognize that the 40 hours per week they demand “is not easy to achieve” (…). He also thought that perhaps it could be achieved in some branches, although he admitted that for the weaker sectors the discussion will not be easy. (1)

Employers and leading government against workers’ demands

caricature photo – www6.rel-uita.org

The president of the Chamber of Industries, Fernando Pache, considered that the reduction of working hours is an issue to be resolved bipartitely, between each company and its officials. Pache questioned reducing the working day and maintaining the salary that is paid in eight hours; among other things, because it would increase the employer’s costs. “You are going to find the other problem: let’s work six, let’s get paid eight, let’s not technicalize or fire anyone; We are not very mature to carry that conversation forward, let’s say, the matter is not ready.”(2) For his part, the Minister of Labor of the right-wing government, Pablo Mieres, said that the bill signed by the senators of the Frente Amplio that seeks to reduce the weekly working day from 48 to 40 hours is “pre-electoral demagoguery.” (3)

It is necessary to distribute working hours between employed and unemployed

Without a doubt, in the fight for the reduction of the working day, without reducing the salary, we are alongside the workers and we accompany that fight. But this legitimate claim must be incorporated into being implemented without increasing production rates. If 100 bottles are produced in 8 hours, we should not end up exhausted manufacturing the same 100, but in 6 hours.

If with the struggle we managed to prevent production rates from increasing, shortening the working day with the same salary, it would be an enormous lever that would allow us to unify all the employed and unemployed in a great fight. If the employers and the government of capital want to produce the same or more, more personnel should come in, there should be more employment, which is so needed, thus increasing the number of workers and unemployment would decrease.

Also read | On the reduction of weekly working hours

Resume the solidarity of the working class with the more than 150 thousand unemployed

There are about 150 thousand people who are looking for work and cannot find it. Thousands of other workers are under junk contracts, one-person contracts, shop owners, and other sinister mechanisms where the employers and the bourgeois State steal their rights, make them work longer hours and have no job stability. These are the most exploited, the “weaker sectors”, which is why the working class must embrace them and incorporate them into their slogans and demands. Solidarity with the unemployed class brother, class solidarity to “negotiate” all unified.

We should not do as the president of the Chamber of Industry wants, dividing ourselves so that we negotiate the reduction of working hours per company. This weakens us as a class and as Dárdano says “for the weakest sectors the discussion will not be easy.”

The need to unify the entire working class and the unemployed in a single great fight

Photo – PIT CNT

If the entire labor movement is unified in a single fight, calling for the unemployed, junk contracts, Solidarity Days, etc., in a great staggered plan of struggle, even if necessary leading to a general strike, in this way the government and the employers would have a much harder time twisting our arms.

In this unitary perspective, the demand for 6 hours of work, without a reduction in wages or an increase in production rates, would open the possibility for thousands of colleagues to obtain a job. This would be a solidarity unit with enormous strength.

Today, the person who is in a position to call for this unity and develop this enormous struggle is the PIT CNT, which is why we must demand that they call for this solidarity path of unity and struggle. We at IST do not place any trust in the vast majority of the top leaders of the Central, who are a bureaucracy and who only call for isolated commitment strikes and dedicate most of their time to the negotiation chair. Therefore, it becomes necessary to take the task into our hands, from the rank and file workers, the honest delegates and the rank and file committees formed in the companies.

Distribution of working hours between employed and unemployed with a salary no less than the family basket!

The capitalists and their State will oppose any reduction in the working day where they cannot increase production rates or lower wages. The capitalist measures what profit he can make on this claim. In many countries it has been shown that this reduction in hours was accompanied by greater productivity, that is, the deterioration of our nerves and muscles, at the cost of our health.

Perhaps the employers negotiate, where they make a profit, where the workers are forced to produce the same thing, but in fewer hours. We know that even that type of reduction will not be achieved by the majority of workers. And much less just negotiating or isolated fights. The opportunistic project presented by the MPP-FA to reduce the workload, maintaining the same production and staggering a reduction of 2 hours per year, from 48 to 46, is presented only to gather votes for the elections, they did none of that in 15 years of government. That lie is the one currently being raised by Sergio Massa, in Argentina, candidate of the Frente de Todos, which governs against the workers. We can expect nothing good from the representatives of the capitalists.

The working class has an enormous challenge, we organize in each workplace between effective workers, junk contracts and if we can, incorporating the unemployed in the area in an organized manner. This is a task that will strengthen us in the perspective of a great struggle, the fight for the distribution of working hours, the reduction of the working day, without reducing our salaries.

We call on the thousands of rank-and-file workers, the honest delegates, the base committees in the companies to discuss this path, this great task of solidarity and struggle to work less so that our class brother can escape unemployment. Along with this, we must begin to take the reins; there is a great need to establish a new union and combative political leadership, which is willing to fight a huge battle in the streets. With these proposals we want to fight and talk with you to move forward together.

For the distribution of working hours – Reduction of the working day

No salary reduction – No increase in production rates

Salary equal to the family basket adjusted on a monthly basis How do they do with supermarket and fuel prices?

For the grassroots organization and joint assemblies of the employed, precarious and unemployed

For a new political and union leadership

Fuentes

Article published in: 27/09/2023