The XIX Extraordinary National Assembly of the National Association of Public Employees (ANEF) closed this Friday, November 21, with definitions that reflect the political and union climate that Chile is going through weeks before a second round where the State model, labor rights and public employment are once again in dispute.

After two days of work and debate, the plenary of the largest public sector union in Chile - 120,000 members - voted on three central resolutions: to support candidate Jeannette Jara in the December 14 election, to reactivate mobilizations at the national level and to prioritize labor stability in sectoral negotiations with the current government. The atmosphere was one of clear reading of the context: in the face of the advance of discourses that seek to shrink the State and make public work more precarious, the ANEF chose to affirm its tradition of defending the public sector.

Carlos Insunza, ANEF's national secretary, was direct in explaining the first resolution: to call for a vote for Jeannette Jara, who, he said, represents the program "closest to the conditions we defend as Confederation". It was not a neutral or routine definition: it was given after analyzing a scenario where the public sector could once again be the target of cuts, layoffs and privatizations.

The second approved line looked beyond the electoral result. Insunza raised the need for the ANEF to recover its capacity for mobilization, strategic thinking and public communication in the face of the misinformation circulating about public employment. The Assembly clearly read that in 2025 it will not be enough to resist: it will be necessary to dispute the common sense and the social legitimacy of the state sector and of those who support it day by day.

This mandate takes even more consistency in light of the document signed by candidate Jeannette Jara and sent to the assembly to be read, where she committed to: strengthen and modernize the State at the service of the majorities, implement a comprehensive reform of public employment with labor stability, end the precariousness of contracts and make them permanent, establish a new civil service career based on merit, experience and continuity of public service, legislatively resolve the pending ANEF-Government agenda during the first two years, and consolidate participatory labor relations respecting freedom of association, collective bargaining and the right to strike.

In his closing speech, the national president, José Pérez Debelli, did not shirk the responsibility that now falls on the leadership: to defend public employment, labor stability and state workers in the face of any attack on labor rights. His words resounded as a road map and a warning: the Assembly not only deliberated, but also mandated.

"If the extreme right comes to government, public workers know what is coming: cutbacks, layoffs, union persecution and setbacks in rights won for decades. That is why we have clearly defined our role: to defend public employment, job stability and the social function of the State. We will not allow the idea that the State is a cost to be reinstated. The State is those of us who work to support health, education, justice and the services that guarantee citizens' rights", said Pérez Debelli.

From Public Services International, these definitions are read as a gesture consistent with the defense of the social State, collective bargaining and labor rights in the public sector, especially at a regional moment when governments and projects that seek to weaken the public sector and fragment trade unionism are growing.

For PSI, an eventual arrival of the extreme right in government in Chile would not simply be an administrative change; it would be a shift that could directly affect our ability to defend public services, state employment and collective rights. When an agenda is installed that seeks to reduce the state, privatize essential areas and weaken union organizations, our work becomes more challenging, but also more essential. If this scenario materializes, we will have to redouble our coordination, our support for our affiliates and our international defense of the principles that sustain democracy at work and the social role of the State.

Chile is entering a decisive election, where not only who will govern is at stake, but also which model of State will prevail: one at the service of the majorities or a reduced, mercantilized and hostile one towards those who work in it. The ANEF leaves its Assembly with a clear definition: it will not be a spectator or neutral in the face of a project that threatens rights, employment, organization and union democracy.