Digging into the demands and mobilizations of the public sector

Carlos Insunza, coordinator of the Public Sector Roundtable-CUT and vice president of the ANEF, addresses in an interview the scope of the request they are making to the Government and explains common denominators in strikes and complaints from organizations of State officials. He reinforces the need to recover purchasing power and advance the labor agenda. “For now, the disposition of the ministers representing the Government at the table has been one of a desire for dialogue,” he points out. Regarding the demonstrations by unions in the sector, he points out that “public services, in order to adequately serve citizens and to be able to perform fully, require a budgetary framework that once again recovers their full capabilities.” The leader reiterates that they will call to vote against the constitutional proposal “because of the dramatic setbacks it contains in labor terms, because it consolidates norms of the current Constitution, goes backwards with respect to some and constitutes a denial of the advances that had been demanded in matters of syndical freedom”.

Hugo Guzman. Journalist. “The century”. Santiago. 11/17/2023. In summary, what are the demands that you presented to the Government as the Public Sector Board?

The Public Sector Roundtable, coordinated by the Unitary Central of Workers (CUT), presented its list of economic demands in the current context of the country, taking into account that we reached an agreement last year in a much more complex economic situation since the inflationary point of view and projections of the country’s economy, demanding a 6.5% nominal readjustment. This figure constitutes the recovery of the lost purchasing power, which with the uncertainties that still exist, is a figure that will be between 4.5 and 5%. It also proposes a range of real growth in remunerations based on projections of improvement in the country’s economic situation and more positive ones than in previous periods. The document also contains a very particular emphasis regarding lower-income workers in the State, demanding an increase that is above this 6.5% of the minimum income that is regulated with respect to the auxiliary, administrative and technical levels, and an improvement of a tax charge bonus that is paid monthly to low-income workers throughout the State, along with the strengthening and guarantee of full coverage for public workers in this matter.

Furthermore, the document proposes giving continuity to the development process of the labor agenda that we developed last year and we agreed on a projection for this year with the Government of President (Gabriel) Boric, represented by the Minister of Finance and the Minister of Labor, giving account of progress in the 17 tables that managed to operate this year in different areas, which seek to strengthen and advance labor rights in cross-cutting matters, such as the issues and demands of child care of public workers, the incorporation of civil servant security protection mechanisms , in terms of mental health, in retirement incentives, and therefore the document has a projection of compliance and ratification of the agreements and progress reached in these tables during this year, through the readjustment law in several of them , and the projection of these tables to continue debating issues that have still been under discussion, but in which full solutions have not been reached.

Since the negotiation was established this week, on Tuesday of this week, with Minister (Mario) Marcel and Minister (Jeannette) Jara, a fairly limited work schedule was agreed to address the set of matters contained in the document and a ratification – both from the Public Sector Board and from the Government authorities – to visualize a path that allows reaching an agreement. Indeed, economic issues will be those that will be discussed in the coming days, but there is also the labor agenda and the realization of its progress. It will be all of these elements that we have to discuss in these next two weeks, and we hope and are confident that they will allow an agreement between the parties, as soon as possible.

How do you see the Government’s disposition, the response, could this end in a strike or mobilization?

For now, the disposition of the ministers representing the Government at the table has been one of a desire for dialogue and agreement that we value and that we will have to see specifically in the development of the negotiation. In recent years, the processing of the Nation’s budget has effectively become a process that has become more complex, which extends over time and clearly public sector organizations have made various approaches to budgetary matters, taking into account the needs that after the budget cuts and fiscal consolidation that have had a very significant impact on different sectors of the administration from 2019 onwards, it is necessary to decompress the situation of public services because we have reached a situation in which many institutions, not only are workers affected in different ways, but in many cases these are approaches that are much more directly related to the capacity of our institutions to adequately serve citizens and therefore fulfill their institutional mission. .

In that framework, are you worried about how the 2024 Budget comes out?

In this framework, indeed, the Government’s budget priorities point in some directions, but they do not cover all of these demands and the budget debate has evidently been marked in a context in which cases of corruption in financing through foundations of some public services have impacted this process. However, we hope that in the legislative process various pending budgetary matters can be resolved and it can be prioritized and strengthened in the areas that from the world of health, both centralized and decentralized, as well as from other public institutions that have been mobilized. and demanding that the budget include strengthening pending institutional matters, paths can be sought that in the 2024 budget but also in its projections allow relevant advances.

Common denominator in mobilizations and strikes in the public sector

In recent months, several mobilizations and strikes occurred among officials of the SII, Mineduc, Air Traffic Controllers, the Ministry of Culture and Heritage, among others. Is there a common denominator, is it something that usually happens, do you view it with concern?

Precisely in the last couple of months, in the last few weeks, various mobilizations have been taking place from public services, the Internal Revenue Service, the Heritage Service, the Ministry of Culture, air traffic controllers, workers of the Health, which have expressed through mobilization the demands and development of internal negotiation processes and agreements that had been reached with their own authorities, as well as their reflection in the budget and the approach of the need to recover the capacities of the public sector.

Indeed, there is a common denominator in all these mobilizations and that has to do with the fact that the cycles of budget restriction that we have experienced from 2019 to date and that effectively within the framework of the fiscal consolidation that was implemented particularly since last year were a need to particularly balance the economic cycle in terms of the inflationary effects it was having, they already have a level of exhaustion with respect to public institutions.

In order to be able to adequately serve citizens and to be able to perform fully, public services require a budgetary framework that once again recovers their full capacities and that focuses on the new needs that have been expressed during this period. In the debate of the Central and the Public Sector Table itself we have had absolutely in view the political process that our country is experiencing. We have seen with the greatest disappointment how the Constitutional Council has finished drafting a text that constitutes in our opinion an abysmal setback with respect not only to the expectations of a constituent process that will overcome the limitations of the constitution bequeathed by the dictatorship, but even setbacks regarding the frameworks that currently govern our institutions and Chilean society from that constitutional text.

From the CUT, are they going against it? What worries you most about this constitutional proposal?

The CUT, its Expanded National Board of Directors, the highest representative body in which the National Board of Directors, the representatives of the presidents and general secretaries of the affiliated organizations, the presidents of our functional and territorial organizations, unanimously defined, in a broad debate of its members, who will call to vote against this new constitutional text.

Firstly, due to the dramatic setbacks it contains in labor terms, because it consolidates norms of the current Constitution, goes backwards with respect to some and constitutes a denial of the advances that had been demanded in terms of freedom of association, the full exercise of collective bargaining. as a mechanism to level the playing field in our society. But also, because it gives carte blanche to the main mechanisms of abuse that neoliberal society has imposed on us.

It constitutionalizes the AFP, it constitutionalizes the ISAPRE, which are two of the main plunderers of workers and their possibilities of guaranteeing social security. It goes back again in terms of progress regarding the strengthening of public education and implies very profound setbacks in tax matters regarding the land tax exemption rules that are incorporated in an unusual way in the Constitution and very particularly with respect to the rights Women’s.

From the Central and from the Public Sector Board we have adopted this agreement, not only in order to declare it, but also in order to play active roles to inform workers of the enormous risks that this implies for the future of our society. and for the possibilities of building a more just and equitable society. This is a constitutional text that, although it declares in the letter that Chile is going to have a social and democratic State of law, which it has done through the articles that have been approved in the Constitutional Council with the circumstantial majority of the extreme right and right that has approved it, is to completely erase this concept that constituted the main advance that the draft of the Commission of Experts had raised in the proposal that began this new cycle of debate in this constituent process.