CCOO and UGT already created their own coalition of trade unions

Mar 21, 2017
In view of the calls made by the Basque Country’s trade unions CCOO and UGT in the media to create a “coalition of trade unions” aimed at reactivating collective bargaining and the call for a demonstration on the 23rd of March, ELA and LAB declare that the aforementioned proposal, which they have only heard of through the press, is completely incompatible with the support that the abovementioned trade unions give to minority agreements.

For ELA and LAB this proposal is completely incompatible with the following facts:

  • The Agreement signed at the incorrectly named “social dialogue round table” on the 22nd of July, in which the Basque Government, Confebask, CCOO and UGT undertook to promote and spread minority agreements. The support given to minority agreements only strengthens employer positions, which already have a privileged status after the last two reforms and therefore reduces the costs of the agreements and makes labour relations even more precarious. From ELA and LAB we want to draw attention to the fact that the only agreement reached at this round table was to try to neutralise the result of the trade union elections in the Basque Country.

  • CCOO and UGT’s desire to turn collective bargaining into a state issue, developing Zapatero’s labour reform, which gives priority in the application of state agreements over any Basque agreements. These two trade unions have been signing agreements with the State aimed at preventing our right to collective bargaining. This goes against the Basque workers’ right to decide, against the framework of collective bargaining itself.

  • Their presence at the “social dialogue” round table, regarding which they state “did not exist” in the Autonomous Region of the Basque County. Sufficient example of this is the complete lack of collective bargaining in the public sector. The Government with which they are sharing this table is the first to refuse the right to collective bargaining.

Finally, we at ELA and LAB declare once again our wish to work for a Basque Labour Relations and Social Protection Framework allows us to decide on the social and labour conditions of the Basque workers in our area.