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Uruguay – More strikes in Uruguay as government union relations worsen

By - 26 March 2014

Workers from the Victoria Plaza casino have announced plans to go on a 24 hour strike after a pit boss was promoted to the post from another casino rather than an already existing employee.

Head of the Members of the Association of Administrative Officials of the Victoria Plaza  Union (AFACVI), Luis Garategui , told local press that he intended to seek a meeting with head of the Uruguayan Gaming Board Javier Chá to discuss the matter and did not rule out further strike action.

“The director behaves like a bull in a china shop, each time he moves something he breaks something,” he said.  “We think it’s in retaliation for the strike,” he went onto to say threatening more strike action if the director did not go back on his decision. Under the mixed system private investors can set up a casino in a hotel but it is the state that manages and runs the casino for which it receives in return between 35 per cent and 45 per cent a percentage of casino profits.

According to Garategui the decision to promote the employee from another casino was in direct retaliation to the recent strikes in the state controlled casino sector. Strike action has intensified over recent weeks after Chá announced that the casino at the Mantra Resort Spa and Casino would close on February 28 and would not reopen until December 1. The casino had reported losses of USS$500,000 in 2013 and the gaming board made the decision to turn the casino into a seasonal casino only.

In response to the news, union members for the workers at the Nuevo Nogaró, which is also a joint enterprise between Vidaplan SA and the state, announced that they would go on strike once the casino in La Mantra closes its doors while union members also organised protests outside the Fasana and Solana hotels both of which have announced that job cuts will be made in May this year.

Javier Chá, told El Pais that he learned of the most recent strike via the press and described the strike as an “outrage.”  According to Chá the strike over the new promotion was part of a deliberate plan of animosity on behalf of the union’s leadership.  “First they go on and strike then they seek dialogue,” he said. He also explained that the casino promotion was down to administrative necessity and nothing more than part of “routine procedure.”

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