Negotiations between the Ecuadorian government and indigenous peoples end without labor agreements

The Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador has announced this Friday the closing of the dialogue tables between the Government of Ecuador and the native peoples’ movements, without reaching agreements in the labor and subsidies tables, after 90 days of dialogue.

The Minister of Labor, Patricio Donoso, has defended that in the table of employment and social rights 17 agreements have been reached, although the indigenous sector did not want to sign the minutes that gathered them, in declarations in the Ecuadorian Episcopal Conference (CEE) where the meetings have been held.

On the other hand, the leader of the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (Conaie) has transmitted that the negotiation at the work table had been “complex” because, he reproached, “it is not possible to advance in labor flexibilization and in the violation of workers’ rights”, according to the newspaper ‘El Comercio’.

For his part, the Minister of Transport, Dario Herrera, said upon leaving the EEC that the table aimed at dealing with fuel subsidies had been closed “with agreements and disagreements” and that there was room for dialogue on this issue “in another space”.

However, the indigenous representatives have highlighted the need to further lower the price of fuels for the population linked to agriculture and rural areas, due to its impact on the economy of the entire population, an aspect that has not been supported by the Government, according to the teleSUR network.

The dialogue tables were inaugurated last July 13 and in two months a total of 199 agreements have been reached in a total of ten tables that have addressed issues such as public and private banking, energy and natural resources, access to health, higher education or labor rights.