"We cannot allow the PIT-CNT to set the course of our country": Jorge Fernández Pereyro on BPS

Just over two weeks before the BPS election, Jorge Fernández Pereyro, candidate of Hay Otro Camino for the business sector, chose to make his stance clear: "We cannot allow the PIT-CNT to dictate the direction of our country."

This is not a casual statement. It is enough to read what the union center is bringing to this election.

What the PIT-CNT wants to do with your contributions

The PIT-CNT's List 11, led by the current director for workers, Carlos Clavijo, presented its platform for 2026-2031. One of its seventeen proposals is to "review the exemptions of employer contributions" and work to eliminate those that, according to the list itself, do not have social utility.

In plain terms: the benefits that currently exist, such as the exemption of employer contributions for the first work experience under Law 19.973, would come under scrutiny from those who have never signed a paycheck on the employer's side.

Clavijo went further. In an interview with Búsqueda, he suggested that "contributions should be based on profit and not on the payroll." The platform of List 11 states it in other words: "we cannot continue to pretend that social security is financed exclusively by those who live off their work." The bill, as always, has a recipient: the one who risks their capital, hires people, and pays.

And this is not an isolated fact. The union has insisted since 2025 on a 1% surcharge on the Wealth Tax for those with more than one million dollars. It went so far that even President Yamandú Orsi dismissed it: "We told them that we are not going to create more taxes."

The only seat they do not control

In the BPS, the PIT-CNT plays at home. In the workers' sector, their list received 434,308 votes in the last election, according to the union itself. In retirees, the ONAJPU retains the position with union support.

The business sector is the only one where the apparatus has not reached. In 2021, José "Pepe" Pereyra won with 48.9% of the votes, about 70,000, with a clear promise: "to defend the businessman from the grievances that, until now, he has suffered from the BPS."

Fernández Pereyro presents himself as the continuation of that line: a representative who answers the phone, travels the country, and stands on the side of those who contribute. He does not come from an office or union activism. He comes from work.

Against the PIT-CNT, on their own turf

This year, the union does not run alone even in the sector it has always controlled. In the workers' sector, it faces Lorena Roqueta from List 15 of Hay Otro Camino.

Roqueta points out where it hurts: the PIT-CNT speaks on behalf of all workers, but defends its own. She travels the country addressing concrete problems and proposes to strengthen the presence of the BPS outside Montevideo. She also wants to change the criteria that currently complicate access to benefits that people generated with their own contributions. She does not respond to a union or an apparatus. She responds to the worker who votes for her.

The underlying idea of Hay Otro Camino is simple: a BPS that is closer, with social directors who genuinely represent the people and not the large union apparatuses. You choose the representative with your vote. That is why they must answer to you.

On November 22, you vote

The election is on Sunday, November 22. Voting is secret and mandatory. In the business sector, each contributor has only one vote, regardless of their size: the neighborhood store counts the same as a multinational. A company that does not vote through its representative is subject to fines of 6, 12, or 20 UR, depending on the number of employees.

Hay Otro Camino is the only proposal competing in all three sectors: Jorge Fernández Pereyro for businesses (List 25), Lorena Roqueta for workers (List 15), and Renaldo Borriero for retirees and pensioners (List 5).

If you are a businessman, worker, or retiree, on November 22 you have the same decision: let the apparatus continue to rule or have someone represent you who answers to you.

You vote to defend your contributions. It is your money, it is your right.