The Chamber of Companies of the Metropolitan Transportation System asks for subsidies and for rates to be maintained.
The sale of suburban tickets is going through a quite critical situation since it has to face the fact that the numbers have dropped by half in the last ten years, at the same time that the sector denounces that the Ministry of Transportation and Public Works (MTOP) did not take the necessary measures as a regulatory body.
In 2012, 75,954,000 tickets were sold, while in 2022 there were only 38,232,000, as confirmed by the Chamber of Companies of the Metropolitan Transportation System to The Observer. From the sector, they maintain that they are in a critical situation and that the MTOP did not take the measures that are required and they demand urgent actions to ensure the sustainability of the system.
From the Chamber they demand, first of all, that the rates maintain their value and that they be subsidized, a very common practice in almost all countries in the world. On the other hand, they request that another escrow and new parametrics and money to be able to sustain the retroactivity of the salary increase for workers in the months of July and August.
Meanwhile, suburban transportation companies – made up of Copsa, Eat, Appointment, Coetc, Ucot, Casanova, Eosa and Tala Pando Montevideo – they communicated in a presentation to the press that operating costs and income are in a great gap that continues to increase, which means that companies have been “losing for years, but the loss is becoming unsustainable.”
Union problems
Last week the Suburban Transport Workers Federation (FOTS) – made of the companies Casanova, Cita, Copsa and Tala Pando Montevideo – carried out a general strike of suburban buses for 24 hours in Montevideo and the metropolitan area, in claim for breaches of the last salary agreement agreed with suburban transport companies.
Miguel Marreroleader of Unott, assured Telenoche that “companies in the suburban passenger sector continue not paying workers the way they should,” and that this situation has been going on since June 1 of this year.
The workers are waiting for the salary adjustment agreed upon with the companies to become effective. transport on July 7, 2022 within the framework of the Salary Tips. In the statement, they point out that “since September 2, they have received a rate adjustment that is not being transferred to the workers’ salaries.”
Source: Ambito
