Unions will come out on Labor Day to support government reforms

The main Colombian unions will hold the traditional demonstrations for Labor Day tomorrow in support of the Government’s reforms, something that the president Gustavo Petro will try to take the opportunity to respond to the massive protests on April 21.

In the streets of the main cities of the country, the presence of thousands of people is expected, as happens every year, while in Bogotá the mayor Carlos Fernando Galan He has already guaranteed the president that there will be a platform from which he can address the attendees.

This year, the president turned the traditional commemoration of Labor Day into a political struggle in which he will measure his power to attract people in the streets, which was one of his strengths but which has been diminished like the popularity of his Government.

“With or without a stage I will walk in the May Day march, I invite you to accompany me. Many times they have tried to silence me and the people. To avoid this, there are megaphones. This May 1 we are going to walk so that Colombia advances” , expressed Petro on the social network X.

Divisions and doubts

Some large unions, such as the Unitary Central of Workers (CUT) or the General Confederation of Labor (CGT) have assured that their members will come out to express their support for the labor, health and pension reforms promoted by the Government in Congress, as well as in defense of “labor rights and decent work.”

However, the CGT is divided and some of its factions, such as that of the department of Antioquia (northwest), stated that they are not going to participate in Wednesday’s mobilizations because they consider that Petro is using the commemoration “to pressure the unconditional approval of his reforms”.

The president of the CGT, Percy Oyola, said that the person leading the resistance to the Petrista demonstration is a woman named Miryam Luz Triana who was expelled from the union.

Diverse demonstration

Meanwhile, the national president of the CUT, Fabio Arias, assured that this will be “a diverse May Day” and an opportunity to commemorate the three years of the social outbreak, which started on April 28, 2021.

“We have a social agenda (in the Petro Government) that truly vindicates the rights of the population in general and from our point of view the reforms are events that evidently put these rights (to health, work and education) out of business. and they make them fundamental,” Arias expressed in a press conference.

Members of the Comunes party, which emerged from the demobilization of the FARC guerrilla, will join the demonstrations to “claim the rights of the working class and support the reforms that the Government is processing in Congress for the benefit of the popular majorities.”

“May Day, more than a party, is a day of struggle, a day of combat. This May Day, Colombians must go out to the streets to fight, to fight, so that changes can truly occur in Colombia and peace is consolidated,” said the president of Comunes, Rodrigo Londoño.