The wife of a bus driver lays with her hands nailed to a wooden cross as she joins other workers to protest against the dismissal of 51 drivers. July 22, 2015. Luque, Paraguay. (Norberto Duarte/AFP/Getty)
In Paraguay, 14 people have crucified themselves and are partaking in a partial hunger-strike after 51 bus drivers were fired for forming a labor union.
For the past 21 days, twelve men — all fired bus drivers — and two women — the wives of fired bus drivers — have nailed their hands to wooden crosses outside the offices of their employer. Three additional workers joined them 12 days ago and have clamped their mouths shut with long, rustic, curved nails to demonstrate how their bosses wants to keep them silent. Under a large tent, surrounded by religious artifacts and family members, all 17 of them have spent their days and nights mostly lying down, unable to move or eat solid foods.
The protest began when bus drivers, frustrated with the lack of worker rights at the private bus line, La Limpeña, in the capital city of Asunción, organized workers and joined the labor union, Federación Paraguaya de Trabajadores del Transporte (The Paraguay Federation of Transport Workers, or FEPATRAT).
Three days after organizing the union of more than 150 workers, 51 of them were fired.
According to Juan Villalba, secretary-general of FEPATRAT,
They were dismissed solely because of forming a union. A union created because they were tired of the continued inhuman conditions.
Workers say they often work 16 to 18 hours per day, for two weeks straight at times, without any vacation or bonuses.
Villalba, along with ten other workers, has been prosecuted under the charges of “disturbing the peace” for organizing the protests against the firings. While the workers will not be going to prison, they will be serving an alternative sentence, although at this time, it is unclear what that would be.
Fiorella Bogado, 11, whose mother is Norma Bogado, one of the women currently nailed to a cross, tearfully told NBC news that she does not want her mother and other protestors to be in the tent by her 12th birthday. She wants to celebrate at home and she wants all of them to be with her. Her mother has called the conditions of the workers “inhumane,” and told local press,
It is very sad that we have come to this, we’re just asking for worker rights already established by law, they want to cover up this issue with money and political pressure.
Villalba has said the owner of the private bus line is a political leader of the opposition party and should have been the first to defend the rights of the bus drivers. He told local press there are five other bus drivers ready to take on the extreme protest and crucify themselves if the owner does not reinstate the workers.
This is not the first time that crucification has played a role in protests by transportation workers.
In 2013, ten bus drivers from the private bus line, Vanguardia, participated in a 63 day crucification when ten workers were fired for attempting to form a union. The protest ended when the workers were reinstated.