Venezuelan Trade Union Network sees a “happy” Christmas as unviable with low salaries and migration

Caracas, Oct 4 (EFE).- The Venezuelan Trade Union Network said this Friday that it considers impossible to celebrate a “happy” Christmas due to low income and migrationso they are preparing a protest to demand, among other issues, an increase in the bonus that public workers receive at the end of the year, known as aguinaldo.

“It is not possible to have a happy Christmas with an $8 bonus and with the family scattered around the world,” expressed the general coordinator of the union network, Mauro Zambrano, quoted in a press release from the organization, which is spoken three days after Chavismo celebrated the beginning of this holiday with Christmas lighting in some areas, by order of the president. Nicolás Maduro.

He pointed out that, given the low income, workers “manage” to cover their basic expenses, including food, calculated at about $107.8 per person, according to independent estimates.

«But, also, (…) the 24th (of December) arrives and you realize that you do not have your son, your brothers in the country, (…) that is not having a happy Christmas (…) Who can “Spend a happy Christmas without your family and with this economic situation?” said the union member.

Zambrano announced that, in less than two weeks, the workers will gather in front of a State institution – which they are still evaluating – to demand the payment of “a decent bonus that will at least cover Christmas expenses.”

The Christmas season officially began on October 1 in the country, which is experiencing a political crisis after the July 28 elections, in which Maduro was proclaimed winner by the National Electoral Council (CNE), while the majority opposition, grouped in the Democratic Unitary Platform (PUD), claims the “victory” of its standard bearer, Edmundo González Urrutia.

The PUD has warned about the advent of the “largest migratory wave seen so far” if Maduro remains in power “by force.”

Some 7.77 million Venezuelans have left the country, according to the Interagency Coordination Platform for Refugees and Migrants (made up of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees and the International Organization for Migration), a figure that the Government reduces to about two million.

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