Chilean Port Workers to Join Student Strike

Chilean port workers and subcontractors at the state-run copper company decided to join a nationwide student strike on June 26 calling for education reforms, a student representative said.

The workers will join the strike launched by middle school and university students, spokesman for Chile’s Confederation of University Students (Confech) and president of the Catholic University Student Federation Diego Vela said.

“All the country’s ports will come to a standstill in the search for free, public and quality education,” he said.

Vela noted that in the lead up to the presidential elections in November, the year 2013 is more important than ever “in terms of the changes we need as a country, and which we have not attained through years of protests”, Xinhua reported.

Meanwhile, President of the Confederation of Copper Workers Christian Cuevas confirmed that the group has joined the strike.

Vela’s statements came after student representatives analyzed the impact of a June 13 rally and planned their next move at the Pontifical Catholic University of Valparaiso.

Education reform has become a major topic in debate of presidential campaigns since 2011, when intense students’ protests demanding affordable, quality education began.