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A funny thing happened on the way to austerity. Women workers said, `NO!\u201d And won. This week, it happened in Chile.<\/p>\n
Sebasti\u00e1n Pi\u00f1era is the president of Chile. He is Chile\u2019s first billionaire president<\/a>. He is a family man. He says he is a \u201cChristian humanist.\u201d<\/p>\n In December of last year, Pi\u00f1era was at a summit meeting in Mexico when, to `lighten\u2019 the mood, he told a joke concerning the difference between a politician and a woman. The joke ends as follows<\/a>: \u201cWhen a lady says no, she means maybe; when she says maybe, she means yes; when she says yes, then she\u2019s not a woman.\u201d No one in the Chilean women\u2019s movements or sectors laughed. Even Carolina Schmidt<\/a>, Pi\u00f1era\u2019s Minister for Women\u2019s Services, publically criticized the President.<\/p>\n Sexual violence is not funny. Neither is the exploitation of women workers.<\/p>\n This past Sunday, Pi\u00f1era and his family were on their way to Mass<\/a>, when three women workers from the Bah\u00eda Coique resort stopped him and started shouting<\/a>. They explained that they had been working for years, were receiving criminally sub-standard and illegal wages<\/a>, were forced to work too long hours with no time off. Pi\u00f1era is part-owner of Bah\u00eda Coique<\/a>, in the southern part of Chile.<\/p>\n The leader of the trio seems to have been Luz Herrera. She explained that she is a laundry worker who has worked at the resort for nine years. She hasn\u2019t received a raise in three years. The salaries are below the minimum wage. She can\u2019t take care of her family on the money she earns. There\u2019s no contract, there\u2019s no protections, there\u2019s workers\u2019 comp or health insurance. She\u2019s forced to work without breaks and without days off, in the very place that the President goes `to relax\u2019.<\/p>\n Pi\u00f1era vacations, often, at Bah\u00eda Coique. That\u2019s where he was when the women workers approached him. He was, no doubt, getting some down time after his grueling time making jokes on the summit.<\/p>\n The government response was textbook classic. First, they tried to ignore the women. Then they claimed that Pi\u00f1era didn\u2019t have any holdings in the resort<\/a>. Then they argued that the President can\u2019t be expected to pay attention to every detail of his vast holdings. It\u2019s hard to see the workers from the commanding heights.<\/p>\n That was yesterday.<\/p>\n Today, Luz Herrera announced that she and her fellow workers had received a raise that would bring the company in compliance with the law. Herrera is neither impressed nor grateful: \u201cFor us, life is hard, but for him, as President, he always washes his hands of us<\/a>. He\u2019s rich, he has money, and so for him, it\u2019s all fine and dandy. But for us, it\u2019s not good. In fact, it\u2019s very bad. I am not afraid of anyone. I began this, and I will see it to its conclusion, because it\u2019s not just about me. It\u2019s about all workers.\u201d<\/p>\n