On July 20, AEBU, the Association of Bank Employees of Uruguay, mobilized in Montevideo to continue its plan of struggle in defense of jobs and against the layoffs at Citibank. In the afternoon they carried out a national strike in all private banks until the end of this day.

“The irrationality and disregard demonstrated by the bank with its hermetic and immovable posture, is what makes us understand that CITIBANK wants to confront the union, we do not know with what objective. We will be again – just as we were 20 years ago – at the height of the circumstances”, expressed Juan Fernandez, president of the AEBU Private Financial Sector Council. “We, the organized workers, are going to embrace our colleagues of CITIBANK with all the warmth and the fight that this union knows how to provide and can deploy”, he indicated.  From the union, they express that they are still developing actions of approach and mediation by the Ministry of Labor, but that they will remain very alert and mobilized.
 
For seven months the union has initiated a plan of action at the local and regional level to seek solutions together with the local authorities of the bank, the exposure of this conflict to the authorities of the bank at its head office and to its regional managers. Likewise, a day of action was carried out together with the comrades of UNI and La Bancaria in Argentina, where the bank is also attacking its workers in Bahía Blanca. “We will not allow this Citibank policy in Uruguay or in the region,” said Guillermo Maffeo, Regional Director of UNI Americas Finance.   “Here the bank has increased its anti-union and anti-labor policy, which we will not allow. We will make and continue to make AEBU’s demands heard,” he concluded.
 

UNI Americas