Officers with the National Bolivarian Police (PNB), backed up by National Guard (NG) soldiers, prevented striking workers at the Universidad Central de Venezuela (UCV) from marching in protest against irregularities with their salary payments.
According to El Universal, a detachment of approximately 30 officers stopped the march form taking place. The workers had planned to march from the UCV campus in central Caracas onto the city proper.
The video below shows the workers leaving one of the UCV’s buildings to one of the roads that leads out of the campus:
The video below shows workers and journalists and soldiers arguing. The workers are explaining to the police that they just want to march a short distance out of campus, while a senior officer tells them that they need a special permit to protest:
Below, a video of the police line that stopped the march from taking place:
The workers are protesting the fact that as per an August decree by Maduro, public sector workers all earn exactly the same salary, regardless of what their collective bargaining agreements say. In other words, a university worker with multiple years of experience and salary increases now earns the same as an individual who started in their position today.
Eduardo Sanchez, the president of the UCV’s worker’s union, said that the decree is “unconstitutional” because it annuls collective bargaining agreements.
Maduro announced the measure as a cost-saving measure, with the stated intention of helping the country recover from the economic crisis.
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