RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The countries of Latin America commemorated this Saturday the International Labor Day (May Day) with restrictions due to the coronavirus pandemic but with the firm demand for an early economic recovery in a region ravaged by the ravages of Covid-19.
Since the outbreak of the pandemic in Latin America in March 2020, the region, which has more than 28.5 million infections and nearly 910,000 deaths according to the World Health Organization (WHO), has seen its gross domestic product (GDP) fall to 2010 levels, according to the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC).
In addition, 57% of employment is currently precarious, and poverty has returned to the levels of 15 years ago, according to the Secretary-General of the Organization of Ibero-American States (OEI) for Education, Science and Culture, Mariano Jabonero, in a recent interview with Efe.
VENEZUELA RAISES THE MINIMUM WAGE BY 177 %.
In Venezuela, where workers from different unions demanded with banners “decent salaries”, “labor demands,” and “vaccines for all”, the Government increased today 177.78 % the minimum integral salary of the country and placed it at 10 million bolivars, equivalent to 3.54 US dollars, according to the official exchange rate.
In the Caribbean country, the base minimum wage was 0.63 cents of a dollar, plus a food bonus for the same amount.
From a rally in downtown Caracas, the Minister of Labor, Eduardo Piñate, indicated that the increase would “impact the salary tables of all sectors”.
CUBA AGAIN BLAMES THE U.S. FOR ITS ECONOMIC CRISIS
Cuba commemorated, immersed in the third wave of the coronavirus pandemic, the traditional Labor Day without long speeches, parades, or massive acts for the second consecutive year, although with intense activity both in the state media and in social networks.
The country’s president, Miguel Díaz-Canel, led a simple act without the public in Havana’s Revolution Square and afterward, together with other authorities, including in his tweets allegations against the U.S. financial and trade embargo, which is blamed for the deep economic crisis on the island.
#ClaveCubana has been the hashtag used, along with #UnidosHacemosCuba and #1roDeMayo, by authorities and government supporters to remember Labor Day on Twitter.
However, in recent days some students and workers of the state sector said that their superiors asked them to share their accounts on social networks messages favorable to the socialist system in force since the 1959 Revolution.
ARGENTINA AND BOLIVIA, WITH MEASURES FOR THEIR WORKERS
Bolivia took advantage of Labor Day to launch a package of measures for workers, including several legislative projects and a 2 % increase in the basic salary previously agreed with the highest trade union entity.
The announcements were made in the main square of Santa Cruz, the largest city in the country, considered the economic engine of Bolivia, where a ceremony was presided over by the Bolivian president, Luis Arce, and the former head of state, Evo Morales.
For his part, the Argentine president, Alberto Fernández, asked businessmen to “share” with workers the profits they obtain from improvements in technology at the virtual closing of a forum to commemorate today’s date.
Fernandez stressed that we are facing “a time where work is also reinventing itself” and in which the arrival of technology and robotics impose “a new challenge”, which “means putting jobs at risk”.
BRAZIL DIVIDED, AND COLOMBIA TAKES A BREATH OF FRESH AIR
In the South American giant, in crisis due to its 14.6 million confirmed cases of Covid-19 and its 403,000 deaths, thousands of demonstrators took to the streets this May Day to support or protest against the government.
Most of the mobilizations, with rallies and caravans, were in favor of President Jair Bolsonaro, one of the most skeptical leaders in the face of the seriousness of the pandemic and now the target of a Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry (CPI) set up this week in the Senate to analyze allegations against the management of the crisis.
On the other hand, Colombia once again witnessed demonstrations but, unlike the three previous days of protests against the fiscal reform proposed by the Government, May Day was calm and without major incidents in different cities, where better working conditions were demanded.
And although until Saturday afternoon there were no reports of vandalism, looting, or road blockades as those witnessed since Wednesday in Bogotá, Medellin, or Cali, events that left hundreds of people injured and between 3 and 8 dead, workers again rejected the tax reform promoted by President Ivan Duque, which they consider harmful to wage earners.
FROM SEX WORKERS TO UNIONS
Some 200 sex workers marched in Mexico City from the Merced area to the Zócalo to demand a stop to the violence and extortion they suffer and demand their right to work.
In Paraguay, several unions gathered to denounce a historically precarious labor situation, now worsened by the pandemic, resulting from job losses in the formal and informal sectors, the majority in the country.
In 2020, since the arrival of Covid-19, some 300,000 workers became unemployed, and there were 110,000 job suspensions, of which 2,000 were domestic workers.
Likewise, in Chile, the date was discreetly remembered this year with a virtual event because of the quarantines in force on weekends in most countries due to the pandemic.
The demand for an emergency income, the freezing of prices, and the minimum wage increase were some of the main demands of the most massive meeting, called by the Central Unitaria de Trabajadores (CUT) of Chile, which was broadcast through social networks.
Meanwhile, in Uruguay, in the absence of the traditional massive march on this day, “decentralized activities” were carried out, led by the PIT-CNT trade union center and focused on collecting signatures against the Law of Urgent Consideration (LUC), a controversial proposal of the Government in various areas, as well as on the donation of food for the well-known soup kitchens.
CENTRAL AMERICANS CALL FOR VACCINATION AND EMPLOYMENT
In Central America, hundreds of Honduran workers participated in a march demanding that the government promote “mass vaccination” against covid-19 and other measures to mitigate the crisis caused by the pandemic.
And in Panama, with the highest unemployment rate in 20 years and in the midst of dialogue to reform pensions, unions marched to denounce the “exclusionary model that takes away labor and social security rights” from the working class, which they called for unity to make this a “prosperous nation for all”.