26 November, 2008After more than two months of negotiations and several weeks of strikes and demonstrations in support of improved conditions, the Uruguayan Metalworkers Union (UNTMRA) has signed a new collective agreement.
URUGUAY: Uruguay's metalworkers signed a new collective agreement last week, giving them a pay rise of more than 14% over two years.
The agreement sets the sector's minimum wage at 9,000 pesos ($379 USD), establishes a paid holiday on 14 March and provides more time-off for union leaders to conduct union business.
Marcelo Abdala, leader of UNTMRA, an affiliate of the International Metalworkers' Federation, told local media: "We won a reduction in working hours without a loss in real wages for shipbuilding industry workers, who will now work 46 instead of 48 hours a week."
He added that "the electronics, plastics, glass, automotive, mechanical engineering and mining sectors also reached agreement on pay." The agreement ends tripartite negotiations in Group 8 of the Pay Councils, a fight that involved intense mobilisation by UNTMRA. The union took strike action in factories and organised massive demonstrations, after employers' groups failed to respond adequately to union demands.
The IMF Regional Office took solidarity action in support of UNTMRA and the metalworkers of Uruguay, calling on the employers' organisations to reach a solution that would respond to the legitimate interests of the workers.
UNTMRA calculates the number of metalworkers at more than 10,000 and the number of workers in the sector as a whole at 30,000.