Sirel interviewed Cijifredo Vera, president of the Confederation of Food and Private Area Workers of Chile (CONTALAPCH) and IUF coordinator in Chile, who gave an assessment of the national strike convened by the United Workers' Federation (CUT) on August 24 and 25 last.

“The strike was originally planned for the month of October, but the date was moved forward due to the great social unrest that Chile is experiencing right now, which began with student mobilizations and has had a significant impact both on society in general and on social and labor organizations in particular.”

“In this situation,” Vera continued, “the CUT called a national strike for August 24 and 25, which was observed by an important number of unions. Several rallies were held in various locations around the country, mobilizing a huge number of workers, although the national executive claims otherwise.”

The CUT repeated its historic demands: more taxes levied on large corporations and multinational consortiums; decent and quality education and health for all; the adoption of a new labor code that includes automatic unionization, effective collective bargaining and an end to layoffs that respond to company needs; the institutionalization of the mechanism of referendum as a form of consulting citizens; and the discussion of a new political constitution to once and for all replace the constitution imposed by the dictatorship.

According to Cijifredo, “In my 35 years of labor activism I have never seen a mobilization like this in Chile, not even in the last days of the Pinochet dictatorship. An estimated 700,000 people mobilized across the country, 400,000 of them in Santiago alone. Public transportation was at a standstill, a significant number of workers from both the public and private sectors participated in the strike, and small and medium-sized businesses closed their doors during those two days. The people basically got tired of waiting for the current government to make good on the promises of change it made.”

“Regrettably a large number of people were arrested and many were injured, and we have to mourn the death of one 14-year-old boy who was gunned down by a police officer.”

The union leader said that representatives of business are scheduling interviews with the government to coordinate actions to stop this wave of social demonstrations.

“That is the best indication that the strike was a success: the leading players of large corporations, such as Nestlé, are now worried that this unrest is only the beginning and that protests will sweep the country, engaging workers everywhere and resulting in economic losses for companies.

“Personally, I think this is unstoppable,” Vera sentenced.