translated from Spanish: From the CUT they raise proposals to raise the minimum wage to 500 thousand liquid pesos

Bárbara Figueroa, president of the Central Unitarian Workers’ Central (CUT), referred to one of the demands raised by the social movement that has manifested itself in the last two weeks: the increase of the minimum wage. In this regard, the trade union leader noted that the CUT proposed that the current figure be raised to 500 thousand liquid pesos, and emphasized that this increase should not be subsidized by the State but by each business sector. Figueroa also referred to the pension item, from which they propose a minimum pension that is not less than the minimum wage, which is far from the Government’s proposal for a basic solidarity pension. In addition, on the demand that the minimum wage increase be to the liquid and not to the gross, Figueroa notes that “the difference is that if I say a minimum wage of 500 thousand gross pesos means that with discounts I will stay at 400 thousand. So we’re talking about a liquid salary of 500 grand that’s the rough 22 UF or the 600 and fraction.” He added: “We cannot pretend that the state is the one that always solves, the state has to take care of the minimum. The difference with talking about a minimum wage of 500 thousand pesos versus the Government’s proposal for a minimum income of 350 thousand pesos is that we are saying that the state does not have to subsidize the wage.” In that vette, “I cannot ask the State, for example, to take charge of each of the realities, not because it cannot, but because it is inourus,” basically because the State must take care of ensuring the education, health, housing, economic stability and more, and in his words, “cannot be looking at the reality of each sector; that’s what guilds exist for.” It further stated that the key was to strengthen the capacity for collective bargaining. Organizations of the social unit Figueroa indicated that about 100 organizations are part of the social unity around the social crisis, with trade union, territorial, villager, environmental and feminist organizations. “It’s a very good sign because somehow it also calls us to give a sign that today we have actors that we can have a lot of differences, but that we are able to put ourselves in big demands,” he explained. In addition, he stressed that this situation has given a “sign of humility, a gesture of real commitment to citizen demands and not to draw small calculation of who more or less positions himself”.

Original source in Spanish