Mafia-style: Union leaders threaten with a total transport strike

The wildcat strike that Copsa's unionists have been holding for more than 24 hours is going to escalate into a total shutdown of passenger transportation nationwide.

Everything depends on what the National Union of Transport Workers (Unott) decides in the coming hours, as it demands that the company pay the full June salary this week, which is still 45% outstanding.

Unott is the branch union for collective passenger transportation and taxis, whose board is dominated by radical extremists aligned with the Communist Party, the Socialist Party, and the MPP. There are also Trotskyists and Maoists.

Union violence

"As of noon this Tuesday, there have been no updates from the company," Unott's union bureaucrat Miguel Marrero told Subrayado news.

In the afternoon, Copsa contacted the unionists to inform them that it would pay part of the outstanding amount.

However, the union emphasized that this partial payment remains "insufficient" and that they expect a clear response in the coming hours, "otherwise, there will be an indefinite transportation strike."

The labor dispute with Copsa has been ongoing for several months with delayed payments.

The possibility of a national strike puts pressure on the government of Yamandú Orsi, as well as the authorities of the Ministry of Transport and Public Works (MTOP), led by Lucía Etcheverry of the MPP.

The radical factions want to call a total general strike of all transportation, both passenger and cargo sectors, which would cause enormous damage to both individuals and companies.

The unionists have refused to engage in an honest debate and continue to demand salary privileges, even though they are fully aware that Copsa is facing economic difficulties.

Where is Castillo?

Juan Castillo is conspicuously absent. The Minister of Labor has not addressed the conflict, which could leave hundreds of thousands of people without public transportation and could cause enormous economic damage to companies, both in Montevideo and in the country's interior.

The authorities' ineffectiveness is total. Meanwhile, the unionists are taking advantage of the situation to create chaos and disorder, using the excuse that their salary payments are delayed.