Revalue salaries, the tireless struggle of workers in Venezuela

The workers public of Venezuela begin another year of protests against “hunger wages” a fight that they plan to intensify until the clamor for an income that meets their needs finally receives a response from the authorities according to their demands, unionists said.

Hundreds of workers carried out the second day of demonstrations in 2024 on Monday, which ended with President Nicolás Maduro’s announcement of an increase from US$30 to US$60 in a monthly bonus without impact on the calculation of benefits such as benefits. , while the minimum wage has remained, since March 2022, at 130 bolivars, today 3.6 dollars per month.

This increase is part of a “bonus policy” –rejected by workers, union leaders, NGOs and opponents – that “has led to loss of salary,” from where “all the benefits are born,” the general coordinator of the Venezuelan Trade Union Network, Mauro Zambrano, told EFE.

According to its calculations, the Government has subsidized the 95% of income, while maintaining the salary “completely frozen”, while the basic food basket, for a family of five people, costs US$531.95 per month, a 12.9% more compared to March 2022, when it cost US$ 471.16, according to independent estimates.

The salary is insufficient

With the recent increase in one of the bonuses, the Executive increases the so-called bonus from US$ 70 to US$ 100 “indexed comprehensive minimum income” (IMII), which includes another bonus of US$ 40, which also does not generate labor liabilities for the millions of people who receive these amounts.

Carlos Salazar, coordinator of the National Trade Union Coalition, explained to EFE that in the calculation of benefits such as vacations “bonuses are not accounted for“, but the salary, which “practically disappeared” Well, “it is useless.”

In accordance with article 91 of the Constitution, every worker “He has the right to a sufficient salary that allows him to live with dignity and cover the basic material, social and intellectual needs for himself and his family,” That is, other basic expenses in addition to food.

However, according to workers and union members, what is established in this article of the Magna Carta “is not fulfilled.”

For example, Eyeris Lovera, 46, told EFE that the 210 bolivars she earns a month – about $5.8 – at a public university in Caracas, where she has 20 years of service in the cleaning area, is basically enough for her. for “nothing”.

A kilo of beef costs US$ 7 in establishments in Caracas.

Lovera, who is grateful to have the support of her partner and two children, was at Monday’s protest in Caracas, where she went tired of her situation and to demand a salary that would allow her to cover her expenses.

Without excuses

The Government attributes the fall in the purchasing power of Venezuelans to international sanctions, which caused a “lack of sources”especially due to the US measures applied to the oil sector, the main source of income for the Caribbean country.

However, Zambrano assured that the authorities “They no longer have the excuses of sanctions” since the United States lifted some of these measures last October, including those related to oil and gas, a temporary relief whose term is scheduled to expire next April.

“The sanctions, at one time, were the perfect excuse for workers not to have salary. At this moment there are no sanctions, there is income in the country, but they are destined for other things, they give priority to anything else political, partisan, even electoral, than the salaries of the workers,” said.

According to the Executive, the country collected US$5.75 billion in taxes last year, when it also, on the other hand, received US$6.23 billion through oil.

The struggle

In Zambrano’s opinion, there is no “willingness or political will to fix this situation” faced by workers, who plan to carry out “a lot of protest” this year.

“We are not going to give up, we are going to continue on the street,” said the coordinator of the Union Network.

For his part, Salazar pointed out that a challenge that union members have in 2024 is “generate such a strong movement of the working class” that manages to produce a “change in this countrys” that guarantees “quality of life” and “a future” for young.

He assured that public workers have not felt the “supposed economic recovery” of Venezuela, where “there is only a bubble of a dome” that “lives like kings, while an entire people lives in hunger”.

“A salary that has purchasing power is what will indicate that a country is on the path to growth, and in Venezuela there is nothing like that, that is why Venezuelan workers are outraged,” he added.