Strike Regulation in Uruguay: Colorado Party Bill Seeks Seven Working Days’ Notice
LABOUR · URUGUAY
Key Facts
- —The country Uruguay, a country of about 3.4 million, governed since March 2025 by President Yamandú Orsi of the left-wing Frente Amplio coalition. Its union federation is the PIT-CNT.
- —What happened On Wednesday 30 September 2026 opposition Colorado Party senators presented a bill on strikes in essential and public services, El Observador and El País reported.
- —The numbers Seven working days’ notice before a strike or lockout; minimum-service orders capped at 30 days, renewable; the 1968 law it amends is Law 13.720 (El Observador, El País, 30 Sep 2026).
- —What it means for you Nothing changes yet. If passed, port, transport and fuel strikes would face notice rules and minimum-service orders rather than outright bans.
- —Still open The government’s and unions’ response, and whether the bill reaches a vote. The Montevideo port dispute behind it was still unresolved on Wednesday, with talks due to resume on Thursday.
A new push for strike regulation in Uruguay reached the Senate on Wednesday 30 September. Senators of the opposition Colorado Party presented a bill on strikes in essential and public services.
It would require seven working days’ notice and let the labour ministry call a secret ballot of affected workers, El Observador reported. The trigger is a months-long dispute at the Montevideo container terminal.
What the bill proposes
The text rewrites Law 13.720, in force since 1968, and sorts services into three tiers. The first covers services whose interruption threatens life, safety or health.
These include hospitals, electricity and drinking water, telephones, firefighters, prisons and air-traffic control. There the executive could ban or severely restrict strikes, but only for strictly indispensable staff.
A second tier covers any service that becomes dangerous because a strike drags on or spreads. Before harsher limits, the government would first have to order a minimum service.
The third tier lists ports and container terminals, passenger and freight transport, fuel supply and some telecoms. This matters for fuel, where prices are already under review.
In this tier the labour ministry, known as MTSS, could order minimum services. The bill states these may not suppress the right to strike.
Notice, ballots and the port
No strike or lockout in public or essential services would be lawful without seven working days’ notice to the MTSS. The notice must state exactly when the action begins and ends.
The ministry could also require a secret ballot of all affected workers, run with the Electoral Court. Once a ship’s loading has started under a minimum-service order, strikes could not interrupt it.
Port and airport operators would file a minimum-shift plan each year for the ministry to approve or adjust. Any order would last 30 days at most, renewable, and end with the conflict, El País reported.
Less new than it looks
Much of this already exists in some form. Article 3 of the 1968 law already requires seven days’ notice before a lawful strike, and article 5 already allows secret ballots.
The bill’s own text says it “neither expands nor reduces” state powers but orders them, according to El País. Its authors cite International Labour Organization criteria for the three tiers.
Why now: the Montevideo port dispute
The bill’s explanatory note points to the conflict at Terminal Cuenca del Plata (TCP), where the government imposed minimum services. The authors argue that tool “lacks express legal basis”.
Talks there have narrowed. According to El País, the union SUPRA now accepts 21 guaranteed work days a month, as the ministry proposed on 23 September.
The sticking point on 28 September was timing: the government offered May, the union wants January. Colorado deputy Adrián Juri said his party will seek to question Labour Minister Juan Castillo over the dispute.
Earlier this month President Orsi kept a full essential-service decree in reserve. The Colorado bill offers a middle route, but its fate depends on the governing Frente Amplio.
What Is Not Yet Known
The Frente Amplio and the PIT-CNT had not responded publicly to the bill by Wednesday afternoon. It is not known when a Senate committee will take up this strike regulation text.
It is also unclear whether a TCP agreement would come first and cool the debate over strike regulation. Neither outlet published the full bill text.
Sources: El Observador, 30 September 2026; El País (Uruguay), 30 September 2026; El País (Uruguay), 29 September 2026; Law 13.720 of 1968, IMPO official legal database.
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