Weekly Report - 10 March 2022 (WR-22-10)

The government led by President Luis Alberto Lacalle Pou accused Uruguay’s main trade union movement of trying to piggyback on International Women’s Day on 8 March by electing to stage a general strike for the same day ahead of a crucial national referendum at the end of the month. The Plenario Intersindical de Trabajadores-Convención Nacional de Trabajadores (PIT-CNT) umbrella trade union denied deliberately politicising an event designed to improve gender equality. The PIT-CNT said it had opted to organise a strike for the same day because working women were victims of the labour reforms contained within the Lacalle Pou administration’s 476-article Ley de Urgente Consideración (LUC), nearly a third of which it is hoping to overturn in the referendum on 27 March.