The Secretary General of the Autonomous Confederation of Class-Based Trade Unions (CASC), Gabriel Antonio del Río Doñé, demanded on Friday that the Dominican government raise the minimum wage for public sector workers, pensioners, and retirees.

Del Río Doñé questioned how a family earning ten thousand pesos (RD$10,000) can survive in the face of the ever-increasing cost of food and medicine, and considered it urgent to find a definitive solution to this problem.

“We can’t continue with 10,000 pesos as a public employee salary. Likewise, we can’t keep pensions and retirement payments at 10,000 pesos. When you do the math and subtract the amounts, you end up with eight thousand pesos or so… This is a constant insistence from the union movement; we have to find a solution,” he stated.

The union leader also noted that the state has provided pay raises to the entire health sector, except, in his words, for administrative workers.

“Note one interesting thing: the entire healthcare sector has been increased, except for administrative workers. We’re talking about the colleagues who work at the reception desks, among others,” he said.

Gabriel del Río also expressed his hope that President Luis Abinader “can make the effort in this new review of the economy.”

The union leader’s statements were made in response to journalists’ questions about the issue during the Committee to Combat Child Labor meeting, held at the headquarters of the Dominican Municipal League (LMD).