09APR232- 'Unions will march on May 1 for labor rights and demand resignation of Guillermo Lasso.- "The main workers' centers, led by the FUT, seek the president's departure, except for the CTE, which considers that he should finish his term.
[Below is a translation of the article into English.]

• "Although there are three weeks left to commemorate International Workers' Day, on Monday, May 1, the largest unions in the country have already defined the place, time and route of the march they will carry out. On that day they will not only vindicate labor rights and demand the creation of more and better sources of employment, but will also raise their voices to demand the resignation of President Guillermo Lasso, while the impeachment trial against the head of state for the crime of embezzlement related to the Flopec case is being defined in the National Assembly.

As usual, the unions will meet at the Caja del Seguro Social, in the north center of Quito. The concentration is scheduled to begin at 08:00 and from there they will walk through several streets until they reach San Francisco Square, in the heart of the colonial center, a few blocks from Independence Square, where the Carondelet Palace is located.

President of the Republic, Guillermo Lasso, is notified of the impeachment trial against him.
Dissatisfied with the two years of Lasso's administration, the workers hold the current government responsible for the increase in insecurity, social crisis, deterioration of public services, acts of corruption in the State and for not creating the necessary conditions to achieve a real economic reactivation that would translate into greater hiring of personnel. They also reject the decision to allow the carrying and possession of weapons for civilian use.

For some time now, the labor market in Ecuador has been reduced to the fact that only three out of every ten workers have a full job (that in which a worker receives the basic salary or more), the rest are unemployed and a high percentage is in the informal sector.
As of February 2023, the full or adequate employment rate stood at 32.9% and the unemployment rate closed at 3.9%. The seriousness is in the other categories that correspond to informality: underemployment, 21.6%; other non-full employment, 30.4%; and unpaid employment, 11%. The figures come from the National Survey of Employment, Unemployment and Underemployment (Enemdu) prepared by the National Institute of Statistics and Census (INEC).

Defending the Ecuadorian Social Security Institute (IESS), which has been in a financial crisis for several years, will be another of the workers' slogans on their day.
The mobilization will be peaceful, said Marcela Arellano, president of the United Workers' Front (FUT), who is also asking Parliament to process the proposed Labor Code that the union submitted last year.
In the framework of the impeachment trial against Lasso, Arellano pointed out that they respect the constitutional procedure taking place in the Assembly, but they will remain vigilant. They hope "that the Government does not buy assembly members" to save itself from being judged.

On May 1 they will demand the resignation of Guillermo Lasso, something they have been seeking for months.

"The Government is incapable of solving the serious problems that Ecuador is facing, the president has to step aside", highlighted the leader.
In view of the possibility that the President may apply the cross death and dissolve the Legislative, the FUT has not yet determined if, in case this happens, they will take to the streets to protest as the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (CONAIE) has planned to do.
Arellano explained that after the Workers' Day march, a general convention of the Unitary Front will be called to define actions, depending on how the political scenario develops. The date of such meeting has not yet been set.
The National Union of Educators (UNE) will also be a protagonist of the day. Before the mobilization, on April 22, together with the Popular Front, they will finalize details of their participation, said Isabel Vargas, president of the union, who echoed the call for Lasso's exit from power.

In view of the impeachment trial, the UNE spokeswoman pointed out that "the National Assembly cannot hide from the will of the Ecuadorian people", which rejected at the polls the popular consultation proposed by the ruler.
"That is why there are different mobilizations, for the inability to solve the structural problems of the country and much more for being (Guillermo Lasso) an author implicated in acts of corruption and his participation in narco-politics. It is necessary that the Assembly members fulfill their role of oversight", commented Vargas and added that if the trial does not prosper in the Legislative the population has the constitutional right to resist.

The Ecuadorian Labor Parliament (PLE) will also join the mobilization. Fernando Ibarra, head of the union, said that the head of state has not complied with article 3 of the Constitution -on the primary duties of the State-, which is to guarantee secular ethics as a basis for public affairs and the legal system.

"What did President Lasso do? The president found out what was happening with his brother-in-law (Danilo Carrera), he found out about the Flopec issue and did absolutely nothing, he preferred the interests of his family, interests of another nature, instead of those of the State", reproached Ibarra.

In his opinion, Lasso attempted against the security of the State, "that is why the mafias continued operating inside the highest level of Government and also have society in suspense with a fatal insecurity", remarked Ibarra, who in turn criticized the handling of the request for impeachment in the Auditing Commission and the performance of its president, Assemblyman Fernando Villavicencio, who delayed in notifying the president and his accusers.

José Villavicencio, president of the General Union of Workers of Ecuador (UGTE), insists that Guillermo Lasso has to go because "he has demonstrated that he has no capacity to govern" and does not have the support of the population.

Villavicencio, who on May 1 will assume the presidency of the FUT, also lashed out against the Assembly for the way it has handled the process against Lasso since its inception.
"People who were against the impeachment voted in favor, and we ask ourselves, were they being priced for what is happening now?" said the UGTE leader, in reference to the allegations that Carondelet intends to buy the votes of certain legislators to save the president.
The threat of a cross-death by the Executive has been a constant since the first year of his administration, Villavicencio recriminated.

Although most of the most important unions have in common their desire for Lasso to leave the presidency, there is also another group of workers who, although they criticize the president's management, consider that he should finish the term for which he was elected.
On that side is the Confederation of Workers of Ecuador (CTE), whose leader Édgar Sarango said that with respect to the prosecution of Lasso "they will not fall into adventurism".
In his opinion, in the history of Ecuador, presidents have been overthrown and those who have replaced them have not changed the situation of the country, but "have been the continuity of the same thing".

He commented that "the President of the Republic, Guillermo Lasso, still has two years to seek, if desired, to create a coalition of interesting forces that will allow him to govern for two years". For this, the president "has to give in" and "leave the biased positions", since a country is governed with alliances, said Sarango.

The CTE in recent years has remained distant from the FUT and its centers, due to differences of criteria among its leaders. However, this year there are rapprochements, although its participation in the May 1st march has not yet been confirmed.
Sarango mentioned that the Confederation proposes to move from the struggle for demands to a political struggle, aimed at a new political proposal from the Government." -

https://www.eluniverso.com/noticias/politica/sindicatos-marcharan-el-1-de-mayo-por-los-derechos-laborales-y-exigiran-la-renuncia-de-guillermo-lasso-nota/?fbclid=IwAR0lTlrsXy6suz_31grrS1Lfp7BpPuBV-5xH7jJDTzCDmJHf2v-9kPic5cU