400,000 Chilean Public Employees Launch Strike

SANTIAGO – Some 400,000 public employees in Chile launched an open-ended national strike to demand an 8.9 percent salary hike in 2011 and an end to the layoffs that have eliminated 7,000 jobs so far.

Workers gathered at the entrances to several government buildings in Santiago while some 2,500 employees thronged the capital’s Plaza de los Heroes for a rally.

The vice president of the Anef union, Nuri Benitez, estimated a 90 percent participation in the strike nationwide. The government has not made any estimates in that respect.

“We’re asking for a wage adjustment for 600,000 workers in the public sector, a decent adjustment that takes into account the bonanza that the country is enjoying these days,” she told Efe.

“We’re also asking the government to stop the massive layoffs in the government because in the last week the administration laid off more than 2,000 public servants, and in the year to date, more than 7,000,” Benitez said.

Joining in the demonstration were teachers, prison guards and employees at doctors’ offices and hospitals.

Also taking part in the strikes were employees of the Civil Registry, tax service, treasury, the National Statistics Institute and the National Emergencies Office.

This is the fourth day of the national strike called by Anef.

President Sebastian Piñera’s right-wing government offered public employees a 4.2 percent raise and that proposal was approved by the lower house of Congress, despite opposition from the center-left Concertacion, which calls the raise inadequate.

The bill was to reach the Senate Tuesday, where the opposition is in the majority.

Sen. Eduardo Frei said Tuesday that Concertacion will discuss the possible approval of the smaller raise with the administration if it will commit to stopping the layoffs of public employees.

Meanwhile, Anef President Raul de la Puente and several aides traveled to the coastal city of Valparaiso, where Congress meets, to attend the session of the Senate.

Last year public employees asked for an 8 percent wage hike and the Concertacion government of then-president Michelle Bachelet offered 2.5 percent.

The workers went on strike and finally agreed to a 4.3 percent increase.

The Central Bank hopes that this year the Chilean economy will grow by 5.4 percent and that inflation stays around 3 percent. EFE