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This was the main issue at the first meeting of the National Bank Workers Coordination on 22-23 February 2016, at the CONTRAF-CUT office in São Paulo.

“We are going through a very important moment. We have to take into account that we are dealing with a national congress that is the enemy of workers. They have an explosive agenda that attacks democracy and human rights”, said Roberto von der Osten, president of CONTRAF-CUT.

Juvandia Moreira Leite, the union’s vice-president recalled that the annual national round of contract negotiations in 2015 was very difficult, as was the rest of the year. She believes that this situation will not change until 2018. “We have to think how we are going to organise and prepare for the battles we will face in this situation”, she added.

The meeting was addressed by Guilhermo Maffeo, recently elected regional director for UNI Americas Finance Sector. “This is a big responsibility for me. This meeting of CONTRAF-CUT, which is UNI Americas’ biggest affiliate, is my first assignment in this post. I am proud to attend the first meeting of this group, which will be responsible for organising the next annual round of contract negotiations in Brazil.”

Maffeo said that the most effective way of fighting the right and the multinational companies that do not respect workers' rights or human rights is to build strong unions able to get workers out on to the streets. “I believe that for us, as trade union leaders, protesting in the streets is the best way of fighting the right, which is advancing throughout the region.”

The UNI Americas regional director emphasised that the struggle being waged by CUT and CONTRAF is an example to all the unions in the region. “When you get out on to the streets to defend your rights and your pay, you are not only defending these things. You are also defending democracy, defending governments that really care about the people, you are defending the people”, he said.

Maffeo stressed the importance of the appointment of the Brazilian bank worker, Rita Berlofa, to the post of world president of UNI Finance. “It is very important to have someone like her as president, someone who is a product of this union, this struggle and this meeting. The Brazilian bank workers’ union has an important role and has an influence on other unions in the region. CONTRAF-CUT has a responsibility to work with trade unions in smaller countries, like Paraguay and Costa Rica”, he said.

He said that, last year, a government bill in Costa Rica posed a threat to the country’s state-owned companies. “We went there and organised a march of 200 bank workers – which was our first activity in Costa Rica in 20 years. That was only the start. One month later, more than 15,000 public sector workers marched. This stopped the bill that aimed to destroy the public sector.

The Argentinean trade union leader made an assessment of the first two months of the Macri government, the country’s first democratically elected right wing government. “In the government’s first 60 days, it has already taken its first anti-worker measures and punished civil servants who do not share it’s ideology by dismissing them. The government is trying to use the media to insinuate that these workers were stealing from the state and portray them as lazy workers.”

And there’s more. In the government’s first week in power, bank workers discovered that the Central Bank was going to dismiss 47 workers employed in offices that were to be closed, such as consumer rights and human rights. “We demonstrated for 35 days to defend these colleagues and only one communications media covered this news. We set up a camp five days ago, 24 hours a day to stop them taking money out of the Central Bank and none of the media covered this. This was 150 metres away from the government offices, 100 metres away from the country’s biggest central square”, he said.

At the start of January, the Macri government took another anti-democratic measure. “They arrested a female colleague who was protesting in the street. The press distorted the situation of this woman and implied she was responsible for corruption and the misappropriation of public funds. I have my differences with this colleague, but we cannot allow the government to prevent people from protesting and from defending her rights.  She wanted to build homes for poor people, with recreation centres better than those in private clubs and she was arrested”, he denounced. “Now, in Argentina, the law is used against poor people, workers, trade union leaders and social movement leaders. But it is not used against employers, powerful people or politicians that take away workers' rights”, he said.
He pointed out the harm done to the country by these policies. “Citibank is going to close its operations in Argentina, because it no longer has access to credit. There are no longer programmes for the people, so it’s not a good business proposition for the bank. In Buenos Aires province alone, more than 1,000 bank workers will lose their jobs.”

Maffeo criticised the government’s intention to stop protests and demonstrations. “They want to allow only isolated protests. Trade unionists like us know that protests are important for explaining our causes and have an impact on the public if the media reports on them. There is now a protocol which states that when the police arrive at a street demonstration, trade unionists have got five minutes to get off the street. If they don’t, the police have permission to use rubber bullets to repress the demonstration. After another five minutes, the police have orders to use tanks and, if absolutely necessary, use firearms.”

CONTRAF-CUT had invited Senator Roberto Requião (PMDB) to give a talk  about the national situation on Tuesday, 23 February, at 10am.

Source: CONTRAF-CUT
http://www.contrafcut.org.br/noticias/em-reuniao-do-comando-nacional-diretor-regional-da-uni-americas-financas-alerta-6d95