Ecuador – NO TO PRECARIOUS WORK! LET’S DISMANTLE THE SLAVE-DRIVEN PLANS OF IMPERIALISM’S PUPPET GOVERNMENT!

We hereby share an unofficial translation of a statement by the Defense Front of Workers Rights in Imbabura (FDDT-I).

Dragging the masses into the recent referendum was useless. It is a fact: the big bourgeoisie, today represented by Noboa’s corrupt, fascist, sell-out, hunger-inducing government, wipes its hands with the so-called “will of the people” and, with or without the Constitution, imposes everything that benefits imperialism and the ruling classes.

Now this government is promoting an increase in the working day to 12 hours. And it is not doing so in the abstract: the Ministry of Labor, through Ministerial Agreement MDT-2026-046, signed by Minister Harold Burbano, is acting in a manner that constitutes a direct attack on workers’ rights. The government and employers are proposing what they have always sought: the flexibilization of the working day, hypocritically dubbed “efficient working hours for development.” It is the same old trick: renaming dispossession as “efficiency,” exploitation as “modernization,” and abuse as “agreement.”

What is the aim of this? The essence is clear: to deepen exploitation and make the work of the working class even more precarious; that is, of all of us who sell our labor in exchange for a wage. It is not “modernization,” nor “flexibility,” nor “competitiveness”: it is a historic step backward and a direct assault on workers’ lives.

This agreement allows employers to distribute the 40 weekly hours into shifts of up to 10 hours per day and, through supposed “agreements” with workers, extend them to 12 hours per day under compensation schemes with time off: that is, in exchange for days off, not in exchange for overtime or supplementary pay. To make matters worse, an “hour bank” system is being introduced, which makes it possible to accumulate and redistribute time worked according to business needs. To be clear: they want to turn working hours into employer’s playdough, so that workers are available when it suits the employer, and are then “compensated,” if at all, with time off.

The crux of the robbery is this: as long as 40 hours per week are not exceeded, working days would not generate 25%, 50%, or 100% surcharges for supplemental or overtime work. In other words, a worker could work more hours on certain days without receiving additional pay, as long as they are later compensated with time off. In practice, this opens the door to daily abuse: the boss decides when to squeeze you and when to “give you back” the time, and the worker is caught between exhaustion and fear of losing their job. That “agreement” is not an agreement: it is blackmail under the guise of wages. It is an effective way to “vaccinate” the worker.

Extending the working day does not create jobs: it destroys them. If one person works longer hours, the need to hire another is reduced. It is a form of hidden unemployment and, at the same time, a mechanism for increasing corporate profits without investing a penny in real productivity. What the employer “saves” on new hires is paid for by the worker with their body, their health, and their family.

In addition, increasing the working day opens the door for employers in the public and private sectors to evade their obligations. In practice, the aim is to normalize what was previously abuse: squeezing more hours out of the same salary, diluting or blocking overtime pay, and weakening the ability to complain. This imposes a discipline of force in the workplace: “if you don’t accept it, someone else will,” under the constant threat of hunger and unemployment. And yes, there is so much unemployment in the country that employers and other exploiters know they will have thousands of people at their disposal who are willing to work under these and other working conditions.

But beware: the damage is not only economic. There are “subjective” and very concrete effects that impact the daily lives of the majority: less parental presence in the home, more exhaustion, more tension, and more social violence. In a country riddled with fear and insecurity, this measure pushes thousands of families into a more vulnerable situation: children with less support, broken homes, weakened communities. It is not just a matter of “working more”: it is a matter of living less, of cutting back on time for education, care, healing, organization, and resistance.

Increasing the workday also means increasing risks: chronic fatigue, accidents, occupational illnesses, stress, depression. The body is not an infinite machine. And yes, there is so much unemployment in the country that employers and other exploiters know they will have thousands of people at their disposal who are willing to work under these and other working conditions.

That is why this measure must be denounced without euphemisms: it is an offensive by employers that seeks to take away gains achieved through decades of struggle, strikes, persecution, and workers’ blood. What they want is to return to conditions of slavery, legalized by decree and sold through propaganda. The 8-hour workday is not a whim: it is a historic right won against the very people who today seek to erase it with a “ministerial agreement” and a campaign of deception.

And this is just the beginning. As indicated some time ago, the referendum is useless: they were going to throw away the winning decision, and now they are confirming this with their actions. They will want to strip workers of their historic rights at all costs. If we do not firmly resolve to defend them, they will succeed in positioning this dispossession as something “normal,” “legal,” and even “convenient.”

The few rights we have won through long struggles are being taken away from us. We must not allow this to continue. If we accept 12-hour workdays today, tomorrow they will come for the rest: for our wages, for job security, for union organization, for basic dignity. Defending the workday is defending life. And in the face of a government that governs for the bosses and for imperialism, the response cannot be resignation: it must be organization, denunciation, and struggle, until this measure is stopped and every attack against the working class is reversed.

NO TO PRECARIOUS WORK!

NO TO EXTENDED WORKING HOURS!

WE MUST RADICALIZE THE STRUGGLE; IN THE END, WE HAVE NOTHING TO LOSE
BUT OUR CHAINS!

ORGANIZE, COMBAT, AND RESIST!