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In 1995 Uruguay’s national gas
company was privatized, The managers of the new
company, Gaseba, a subsidiary of Gas de France,
cut its workforce by almost half and have an
extremely hostile attitude towards workers.
But, as Alejandro Acosta, a member of the
union, points out "Gas de France is a
state-owned company in its country, where it
respects worker's union rights and has a close
relationship with its union members." To
protest against Gaseba’s double standards, gas
workers chained themselves to the doors of the
French Embassy in Mondevideo for ten cold and
wintery days in August 1999.
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Alejandro still has a job, but his
colleagues have not been so lucky. "These
privatization are not a panacea, they are
reintroducing conditions of slavery last seen
in the eighteenth century. To be without work
these days is to be left without a future as
far as workers and their families are
concerned. This situation is so hard that
some companions committed suicide."
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