Dozens of employees at the Metro Santo Domingo went on strike this summer until the government met their demands. Now, the strike is over. What did these employees and the government agree on?

Ana Jeandry, 11th grade

During June 2023, dozens of employees at the Metro Santo Domingo went on strike until the government agreed to their demands. The employees marched to the National Palace, demanding for the President to use his executive powers to improve their wages and benefits. In the National Palace, they had a meeting with the Vice Minister of Relaciones de la Sociedad Civil del Ministerio de la Presidencia, who proposed that the staff went back to work while a special commission worked on approving their petitions. 

What were their petitions? According to the Diario Libre, they demand to obtain the payment of labor benefits when the employment contract ends and a salary adjustment. “Active employees assure that, to cover the absences of those who have been removed, subway drivers are working extended hours, with many overtime hours, their days off were reduced from two to one and vacations were suspended.” They also add that many chauffeurs are inexperienced, as they were only put to work once the other staff members started to threaten a strike.

The strike came after another strike threat in January. The workers filed seven demands, and Opret says they complied with all but two. “There were seven demands that they made in January and only two of them have not been met, one because it is not possible, in public administration they asked for a different salary for night hours and that is not contemplated in the law of public servants of the State and the another, the payment of a retroactive payment and since that was done in January, this is a public institution that executes its actions based on a budget, and we did not have a budget for that, and we told it that we had to wait for the 2024 budget,” explained the Director of Opret, Rafael Antonio Santos.

In July, the staff members who went on strike were fired by Opret. In a statement, they explained that “employees who were absent from work, without just cause, must go through the human resources department to pick up their termination letter and receive their job benefits, according to their category, and in accordance with the law.” In a later statement, the director of the Opret expressed that the strike was a failure, as the group of operators and technicians who supported it was very small compared to the total number of employees trained to operate the institution’s trains. It is likely that most of the demands the staff members were making were not met.

References:

Florentino, Y. (2023). Director de OPRET dice desconoce razones de paro laboral — El Nacional. El Nacional. https://elnacional.com.do/director-de-opret-dice-desconoce-razones-de-paro-laboral/

Rosario, B. (2023, June 28). Empleados del Metro llegan a un acuerdo temporal con la Presidencia – Diario Libre. Diario Libre. https://www.diariolibre.com/actualidad/ciudad/2023/06/28/que-acordaron-empleados-del-metro-con-la-presidencia/2388896

De La Cruz, U. (2023, June 22). Director de Opret dice que la huelga en Metro fue fallida. Periódico elCaribe. https://www.elcaribe.com.do/panorama/pais/director-de-opret-dice-que-la-huelga-en-metro-fue-fallida/