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¢ Carrying the CTF banner were (1. to r.) union secretary Rosa Arias, communications director Sergio Gonzalez, education director Gustavo Carrasco,
supporter Edison Cabrera and Local 1000 president Joe da Costa.

Chilean unions march for political reforms

During the I.W.A.’s recent visit
with the National Confederation of
Forest Workers of Chile, two union
members witnessed a political
demonstration in the streets of Con-
cepcion. On October 28 about 150
trade unionists and supporters
walked through the city’s downtown
core to the central Plaza de Armas to
publicly demand political change.

The demands, formulated earlier
in the year at the Third. Program-
matic Congress of the Central Uni-
taria de Trabajadores (CUT), Chile’s
national labour body, call for a new

litical constitution with an elected

nate and a new national labour
code that respects conventions of the
International Labour Organization.
The protesters also called for a legis-
lated 40 hour work week and
increases in the minimum wages for
all workers.

CTF president Jorge Gonzalez
joined speakers from the regional
CUT body, other unions and student
leaders to demand change. CTF
members walked the streets with
their banner.

On the same day, over 5,000 pro-
testers gathered to deliver the same
demand in Santiago de Chile, the
nation’s capital.

“When we got to Chile we didn’t
know exactly what to expect,” says
Joe da Costa, president of Local
1000. “What we found was that there
is more freedom of speech in Chile
than we thought and that our union
Brothers and Sisters there are not at
all timid in making their demands
known.”

The union movement’s list of
demands were sent to legislators
and the presidential candidates for
the upcoming parliamentary elec-

tion on December 12.

The CUT has received a positive
response from left-wing candidate
Gladys Marin and has not heard any

response from the Boreanant: Asa
result, the central labour body-moay

petition all of its members on the pos-
sibility of conducting a general shut-
down and day of protest after the
national election takes place.

“We are demanding rights for our
citizens that exist in other parts of
the world,” said Gonzalez. “We
demand the right of freedom of asso-
ciation and right to free collective
bargaining.”

More than 10 years after the end
the military dictatorship of Augusto
Pinochet, workers have progressed
very little. Prior to the 1973 military.
coup there were over 500,000 union
members in Chile. Today there are
less than 100,000.

“We want our country to develop in
a way that will benefit all of its peo-
ple and notjust the elite class and the

multinational corporations,” said
Gonzalez. ar Py eee Tl
"The CUT aemands were delivered

to the government twice earlier this
year, on May 21 and August 10, with-
out response.

“On our visit to Chile we learned
that over the past decade, about 30
labour legislation bills introduced by
the centre coalition government were
turned down when they went to the
Senate for final approval,” said Nor-
man Garcia, the union’s Communi-
cations Director. “That is because the
Senate is stacked with appointees
who vote the legislation down. We
can understand why the union move-
ment is calling for democratic consti-
tutional reforms in order to have pro-
gressive legislation become law.

and free collective bargaining.

e At rally CIF president Jorge Gonzalez called for freedom of association

eEanmnuunnania Zin.

° The CTF’s jeep led the march through the streets of Concepcion followed
by representatives of the CUT, the labour movement’s central body.

38/LUMBERWORKER/DECEMBER, 1999