00:00And in Chile, workers of the public transport system denounced bad conditions and miserable wages
00:05and threatened a strike that could paralyze part of the public transport system in Santiago de Chile this week
00:10if no agreement is reached with the RBU company.
00:18It's four o'clock in the morning. A hard day begins.
00:21And it is not one, it will be two, because the salary is simply not enough.
00:25It's 16 hours a day working. Many workers do 12 hours, and then go to another job, and continue doing hours.
00:35There are workers who come in at 4 o'clock or 5 o'clock a.m., and work until 2 o'clock or 3 o'clock in the afternoon.
00:41They eat quickly, go to other company and work until 11 p.m.
00:44Do you think we will be able to provide a good service that way?
00:50Difficult, and not only for them, but also for the thousands of users.
00:55of public transportation, which in the country, of course, is also private.
01:01Here they get their money from the state. That's why we workers and passengers don't have to fight.
01:06We are passengers, too. We also take the bus.
01:09So excuse me, but we also do all this to provide a good service.
01:15They are the workers of the Alliance Lafford Union, which brings together urban bus workers
01:22from the Rabu Santiago Company's mobility network, with close to 4,000 workers.
01:29Like this one, different companies win state tenders, and although they are different,
01:33they say, the conditions of the workers are all similar.
01:35The Ministry of Transportation endorsed that the company pays us unworthy salaries,
01:44that we have unworthy conditions, where workers have died en route.
01:50The days are exhausting, only 30 minutes for lunch,
01:53and as long as the trip has reached one of the terminals, where there is not always a bathroom.
01:57Most of the drivers end up getting sick.
02:05They have to walk around with a wimple.
02:07With a change of clothes, they have improved with the little handkerchief that the women put on.
02:11Of course, there are illnesses.
02:12If the strike goes ahead, eight districts of the Chilean capital will see transportation paralyzed
02:22on routes that connect Santiago from one end to the other, such as Parajul, near the airport,
02:26with Vitacura, in the eastern zone.
02:30Voting for the strike means that we have five more days to negotiate with the company,
02:34and we want to take advantage of those five days too.
02:37We want the company to make an offer that it has to make, which is obligatory,
02:40so let's not be afraid and let's vote for the strike.
02:44But the call has not been easy.
02:48To the poor conditions, they accuse persecution.
02:51The company agreed to negotiate before the possible strike,
02:54which the union will vote on electronically, exercising a valid right, they insist.
03:01Today the company has us with minimum wages, with unworthy wages.
03:05That is why we are fighting for fair wages, for fair conditions,
03:09for working hours, in which we can share with our family.
03:12Today the company is denying that right.
03:17A bidding and business model that has been debated for decades in Chile.
03:22Can transportation be called public when it is actually private?
03:25In reality, it's private.
03:28Carolina Sandoval and Paola Dragnic, Telesur, Chile.
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