President Hipolito Mejia doubts there will be much public support for the call to a national work stoppage and peaceful protest made by the Colectivo de Organizaciones Populares. The movement protests the increasing cost of fuel, demand that private companies return ownership of the power distribution to the state, and reduce consumer prices.
Juan Hubieres of Fenatrano, one of the leading spokesmen of the movements in the past, was last year bestowed with purchase orders for 432 new buses and thus his large transport union is no longer supporting any protest action. Likewise, Diogenes Castillo, of the Fenatrado trucking union that also traditionally backed the strikes, is now the director of the governmental Oficina Metropolitana de Servicios de Autobuses (OMSA), and his union no longer backs the call to work stoppage.
With rare exceptions, the highly politicized movements have not had any real public support, as citizens are aware that the strikes achieve little outside of securing benefits for the strike organizers, such as in the case of Fenatrano and Fenatrado and other large transport unions, such as Conatra, three transporter union organizations that today can boast multimillion-peso additions to their fleets for which the government is picking up the tab of much of the cost.
The public teachers union, known as the Dominican Association of Professors, said they would adhere to the strike conditions, as they prepare to be at school tomorrow but not hold any classes.
Elena Viyella de Paliza, president of the National Council of Private Business (CONEP) rejected the strike. She said the initiative works against the welfare of the nation. She advocated that national problems be resolved through dialogue.
