Sorry folks, the government's closed

About a month ago, I was invited to a small wedding service. In Chile, the matrimonial proceedings are in three parts. I will go into this in another post, but for the moment suffice it to say that the first part is a civil ceremony that legally marries the couple. About a week before the wedding, I asked about dress code.

Casual," I was told, "but I don't really know if they're going to get married or not."

Scandal! I asked for the gossip. It wasn't as juicy as I'd hoped.

"The Registro Civil is on strike, so they might not be able to."

In the end, the ceremony went off as planned, but the strike was not quite finished. Off and on for the last couple of months, goverment workers have been striking for a wage increase. Last week, there was another two week paro: even the operators of the publicly owned ascensores, such as the one by my house, were not working. I had to trudge my way up the hill, but that's the least of the concerns posed by the strike. As of yesterday, it is back on. The effects are wide-reaching--Chile is a country with a large amount of state-run services, and a love of bureaucracy. At the moment, it is impossible to complete any transaction dealing with marriage, divorce, identification papers, visas, death certificates, and even autopsies. Tax services can be accessed only via website. Many public clinics have been shut, and public hospitals are running with emergency staff pulled from other locations. Students at some branches of the public universities can't access any non-academic student services. Valparaiso's port customs office, as that of the airport and all other entry and exit points, is being staffed largely by the armed forces. A large segment of trash collectors also joined in this week.

Yesterday, in the plaza in front of the Intendente, which is the office that represents the executive branch of the federal government within each of the regions, the buildings were shut to the public. Workers waved out of windows from all three government buildings surrounding the plaza. Scraps of shredded newspaper floated down, coating the square, as men in suits tossed armfuls of them out of seventh story windows.

The strike centers on the demand for a universal wage increase of 14.5% for public employees. Original offers from the government were for 4%, then 6%. The current offer is a sliding scale that would award the lowest-paid workers a 9% increase, with decreasing hikes for each subsequent earnings bracket. Those making over 3 million pesos a month, about 4,500 US dollars, would not receive a raise.

This offer seems reasonable, other than the fact that Chile's inflation rate this year has been set at 9.9%. This means that under the current offer, even the lowest paid public employees would not be receiving an adjustment on par with the national economy. Essentially, all of these employees will be making less money than they did last year, in regards to their ability to maintain their living standard. The requested 14.5%, then, is intended to award the workers a 4.6% raise once inflation is factored in. According to the strike's organizers, this amount is a fair reflection of the increase in productivity that is projected for Chile this year.

I know little about finanace, but I will say that it seems entirely reasonable to me that the public employees should be given at the very least a pay raise to compensate for inflation. With the global economic situation, the peso has truly plummeted recently, and it's been felt. You can't hold a conversation with nearly anyone without inflation being mentioned. Part of this is the fact that Chileans love to complain about money; sometimes it seems like a hobby. It is, though a reflection of a very real situation that threatens to alter the quality of life of many people.

On the government's side, I favor the idea of a sliding scale. Offering the same pay raise to all employees makes very little sense and seems unfeasible. Better to pool the money that is available towards those closer to the poverty line rather than to overly augment the lives of those already living comfortably.

On the streets, reactions are mixed. I overheard one woman declaring it absolutely feo that workers in a certain government office hadn't joined the strike. Others stood nearby complaining about the various tasks they would not be able to complete until the strike finished. The effect on the health sector, hardly a shining beacon of efficiency to begin with, is particularly disturbing.

This morning an estimated 4,000 or so people marched through Valparaiso. Protests here are never of the rock-throwing, firehose-spraying, newsworthy variety seen in Santiago, although we do occasionally get some excitement. We do, though, get a huge number of protests, low-key or no, because the National Congress is located here. Today, as I sat at my desk working, the shouts and drumming echoed up from Plaza Sotomayer, where the rally began. Now, all that I can make out is police whistles and the very dull sound of chanting.