VALENCIA, 24 Oct. (EUROPA PRESS) -
The general secretaries of CCOO, Unai Sordo, and UGT, Pepe Álvarez, have warned this Monday that the union mobilizations to achieve a rise in wages in Spain will have "no limit" if the Spanish Confederation of Business Organizations (CEOE) does not returns to the negotiating table with new proposals.
"We do not give up any mobilization scenario", Sordo declared before an assembly in Valencia to present the mobilization campaign of both unions under the slogan 'Salary or conflict', one week before the big protest scheduled for next November 3 in Madrid.
Regarding the possibility of carrying out mobilizations similar to those in France, Álvarez has defended that the only limit is the will of the workers, although he has remarked that in the neighboring country a large part of the conflicts were carried out by officials and in Spain there is an agreement to raise their salaries in 2023.
In any case, CCOO and UGT want to make visible in the street the need for a wage increase in line with inflation, which, although not in the same percentage, does include "reasonable" increases and review clauses for both 2022 and 2023 and 2024. It is something that is being achieved in sectoral agreements in several provinces after the workers' mobilizations, so they do not understand that the CEOE does not contemplate these conditions in general.
"We have been and are flexible, but the key is that wages cannot lose purchasing power," Álvarez stressed, since otherwise "it will be impossible to reactivate domestic consumption." He has given as an example the mobilizations of the metal sector in Cádiz or Cantabria, where "fortunately no cars were burned in the streets".
"The CEOE's commitment is the economic recession in Spain in the medium term," added Sordo, warning that if the employers do not move, they will not stop promoting "the conflict, the mobilization and, if necessary, the strike" .
The union leaders have defended that taking to the streets is the only option to "break" the 2.5% increase limit proposed by the employers, something they consider both insufficient and "ridiculous" after months of blocked negotiations, and have advanced that November 3 will not be the end of the campaign because they want to continue in 2023 before the agreements that end in December.
On the other hand, both Sordo and Álvarez have ruled out the possibility that the CEOE's position is due to the assembly that will be held on November 23 to renew its management bodies.
The first has not wanted to enter into its internal processes and the second has blamed it on the fact that "they are comfortable with the blocked agreements." "Only if we are able to make them uncomfortable through mobilization, will it be possible to change their strategy," he insisted.
