A working man against the system: Jorge Fernández Pereyro goes to the BPS for companies to stop the abuses

There are just over three weeks left until an election that will decide who will sit, for the next five years, to resolve issues regarding contributions, debts, payment agreements, and inspections of all companies in the country, and most of the authorized individuals still do not know they have to vote. On November 22, nearly 2.2 million workers, retirees, pensioners, and business owners will elect three social representatives to the Board of the Social Security Bank (BPS). In the business sector, the competition was defined this week: the Hay Otro Camino movement confirmed that Jorge Fernández Pereyro will head List 25, with the support of the current representative of businesses, José "Pepe" Pereyra.

This decision concludes a process that Pereyra initiated mid-year when he announced at the Business Chamber of Maldonado that he would not seek re-election and would instead promote candidacies across the three sectors under a single umbrella. In 2021, Pereyra, with List 26 and the support of Un Solo Uruguay, was the only one to take a seat from the union government that has controlled the BPS for decades: the PIT-CNT leads in workers, and the ONAJPU in retirees, and neither has lost an election since social representatives began to be voted on. This List 26 is not running this year. Its place is taken by List 25.

From the flyer to List 25

Fernández Pereyro does not come from unions or state corridors. He has worked his entire life, starting from the bottom, and today he is on the side of those who provide jobs. He knows what a contribution is because he paid it as an employee and pays it as someone responsible for others. In the campaign, he is described as a man of the street, not of the office, and it is this profile, rather than any union resume, that Pereyra decided to support.

The proposal he brings to the BPS can be summed up in one idea: that the businessman has someone to call. A representative who answers the phone, who sits down with someone dragging an old debt to set up a payment agreement, and who travels to the interior instead of waiting for the merchant from Melo or the dairy farmer from Florida to travel 400 kilometers to be heard. And that, when the state oversteps with a fine, an inspection, or an inflated debt, he is on the side of the one who pays.

"I will be where the businesses are, not behind a desk. Every contributor must know that there is someone at the BPS who will listen to them and defend them," Fernández Pereyro stated upon confirming his candidacy.

Pereyra was more succinct: "Jorge is someone who answers the phone and resolves issues. That is what businesses need at the BPS: a representative on the side of the contributor."

The continuity that the campaign advocates is not with the management of the BPS, but with a style: that of the director who was involved in all issues, traveled the country, and defended both the small and the large against every abuse. Hay Otro Camino also competes in the retirees and pensioners sector with Renaldo Borriero (List 5).

The candidate of the chambers and the applause of the PIT-CNT

Facing Fernández Pereyro is Daniel Añón, List 30, the candidate agreed upon by more than twenty organizations of the Confederation of Business Chambers. Añón presided over the Union of Fuel Sellers (Uvenu) for 13 years, until May 2025, and his public record is well-known: in 2020, when the Lacalle Pou government attempted to end the monopoly of Ancap's import and refining in the LUC, he stepped in to stop it; he opposed the liberalization of fuel prices; and with the state oil company accumulating losses, he did not call for efficiency or competition, he asked for fuel prices to rise to cover them.

His platform for the BPS goes in the same direction: bimonthly meetings of directors with the 27 chambers of the Confederation. That is, a representative of businesses who reports to the unions that put him there, not to the businessman who votes for him.

That the PIT-CNT feels comfortable with him is not surprising. On October 5, the central's portal published in its analysis section a column by Ernesto Murro, former Minister of Labor of the Broad Front and former president of the BPS, which took a position on the three sectors. In workers, List 11 of Carlos Clavijo. In retirees, List 1 of the ONAJPU. And in businesses, verbatim: "we support the candidates presented by the business chambers," mentioning Añón and Graciela Álvarez of List 21 (ANMYPE). That same List 21 is promoted by leaders of the MPP, the sector of President Yamandú Orsi, on the same poster as the lists of the PIT-CNT and the ONAJPU.

The picture is set: the union apparatus, the organization of retirees, and the large chambers, with the approval of the government, have a candidate in each of the three sectors. Those who produce also have theirs.

What will be decided on the 22nd

The Board of the BPS has seven members: four are appointed by the Executive Power with the Senate's approval, and three are elected by the affiliates. The social representatives vote on payment facilitation regimes, debt prescription, medical certifications, inspections, and everything that defines the real cost of hiring in Uruguay. It is not a decorative position: it is the only place where a businessman can seat someone who answers to him.

The vote is secret, personal, and mandatory. In the last two elections, blank and annulled votes were enough to overturn any result. Each of them, on this November 22, is a vote given to the apparatus that has been bolted to the BPS for decades.

Social representatives are not appointed by a party or a union. Each affiliate puts them in place with their vote. That is why they must answer to him.

For the businesses: Jorge Fernández Pereyro, List 25. You vote to defend your contributions. It’s your money, it’s your right.