Blanca Rodríguez’s spicy comment to Pablo Mieres: “There is a recurrence to allude to the Broad Front”

The Minister of Labor Paul Mieres visited the program Earlier than laterwho drives Blanca Rodriguez in the afternoons of Radio El Espectador. For about 40 minutes, the chief answered questions from the communicator and her colleague, Wilmar Amaral, and although everything took place in a cordial atmosphere, there were moments of tension due to some sharp comments from the journalist.

Rodríguez cited numbers from a recent report by the Cuesta Duarte Institute (Pit – Cnt) that showed a retraction in real wages. But the difference occurred when talking about rural workers. According to the investigation, they are the most affected after the hotel and restaurant sector, highly affected by the pandemic.

But Mieres disagreed. “Rural workers no. There is an error in the analysis because I have studied it. With the negotiations that took place at the salary level, there was a maintenance of the real salary,” assured the hierarch.

“You say that the average salary in the rural sector is more than 25,000 pesos?“Rodríguez asked him. “No, I say that they did not lose real wages. They are two different things,” Mieres said.

The minister then considered that according to that same report in 2019, “the number of workers who earned below that limit were more or less the same.” “The pandemic and runaway global inflation that we have today had not passed,” he added.

In another section of the interview, Blanca Rodríguez asked: “Didn’t they think about touching on the subject of the employer contributions that the workers contribute twice as much as the bosses?” Mieres’ response was as follows: “I think it’s fine like this. I don’t want to affect employment. Touching the employer’s contribution can backfire. The employer can adjust for quantity and reduce the number of jobs.”

Perhaps the most intense counterpoint was experienced when the minister cited a reduction that the Broad Front had made in the employer contribution. “There is a permanent recurrence to allude to the Broad Front”, Rodriguez limited..
“Do you know why?” Mieres replied. “Because I think that the Broad Front intends to imagine that this is a disaster and before we came barbaric. And before we came badly, in a downward trend in terms of employment and increase in poverty. When from the opposition it is questioned on the basis that before We were good and now bad, I say: now we are quite good and before we were not so good”.

The farewell of the note was in cordial terms and with the almost confirmation of Mieres that he would be a candidate, once again, for the Independent Party in the next elections.