ELA will intensify the fight in the work centres against nationalisation and the dismissals that the labour reform continues to allow

This was announced today by Mitxel Lakuntza (General Secretary of ELA), Pello Igeregi (Collective Bargaining) and Mari Cruz Elkoro (General Secretary of ELA-Zerbitzuak).

“For ELA”, Mitxel Lakuntza affirmed, “the fight to repeal the reforms by Zapatero and Rajoy has not ended. On the one hand, ELA will continue putting pressure on PNV and EH Bildu to ensure that the questions not covered in this reform (dismissals, EMFs, priority of agreements…) form part of their priorities in the future negotiations that they will have with the Spanish Government. On the other hand, Lakuntza continues: “The Spanish Government and the parties that have passed the reform have sent a clear message to the working class: ‘we are going to carry on making it difficult for you; we are not going to inconvenience the employers or restore rights, what we deny you by law, as always, you will have to achieve by fighting.’”

“42% of the strikes all over Spain and 45.7% of the days lost due to strikes are recorded in the ACBC (Autonomous Community of the Basque Country)” Pello Igeregi revealed. “If we add the data from Navarra, the conclusion is that where ELA acts, there are as many strikes as there are in all the territories under the influence of CCOO and UGT together. The role of CCOO and UGT in the ACBC is to deactivate mobilisations, reduce the potential of the workers.”Igeregi presented ELA’s collective bargaining report for 2022, in which he advances “a difficult context: the consequences of the pandemic in the world of work, the increases in price of raw materials, the supply problems and the high CPI will make collective bargaining even more complicated. In fact, the employers want to take advantage of the high CPI (6.5% in 2021) to cutback people’s purchasing power even more.”

	ACBC	State
Number of strikes	193	451
Days not worked	129.260	282.817

Source: Labor Relations Board (2021 data).

“Therefore, our aim is to fill the collective bargaining with content” Igeregi emphasised. For ELA the following will be obligatory topics to be included in the agreements:

1. Wage increases above the CPI to gain weight in the distribution of wealth, setting a conventional minimum wage of 18,200 euros for Euskal Herria and wage increases to reduce the salary gap.

2. Effective steps against job insecurity, particularly the right to subrogation and the consolidation of all the people in the public sector with fraudulent temporary contracts.

3. Putting reductions of working hours at the centre of conflicts to ensure that digitalisation does not imply the destruction of jobs.

4. Repealing steps for the labour reform through collective bargaining, such as ELA’s clause against the derogation of agreements.

“We must remember,” Igeregi added, “that 2022 has started with the consolidation of ELA’s Strike Fund, with a minimum payment of 1,243.59 euros per month on strike and 1,430.13 euros in sectors and companies where there is high membership numbers. High membership and good organisation will be, once again this year, the key elements in collective bargaining.” To complete the diagnosis, Mari Cruz Elkoro provided the essential gender viewpoint, as “the female-dominated sectors are more spread out and are usually outsourced; here, the employers use the instruments set forth in the labour reforms to block negotiations.” On the other hand, “there are many sectors considered essential (care homes, home help, cleaners, the hotel trade, school dining rooms…) where the right to strike is very limited or even banned due to the abusive minimum services of the Basque Government and the Government of Navarra.”

Elkoro also underscored the insecure effect of the national agreements, even more serious in the female-dominated sectors, a point that the reform has not modified. “Yolanda Díaz’s comment is false; her reform is not going to bring an end to job insecurity in any way at all.” And she provided two very serious examples that contradict the promoters of the labour reform: “In school dining rooms they have moved from provincial Catering Trade agreements to the national Collective Catering Agreement; from 11.49 euros/hour to 7.60; and also working 50 hours more.” The other example is that of Office workers, where, when the provincial agreements disappear, according to the national agreement, the personnel are going to earn between 3,000 and 5,000 euros less per year,” all of this thanks to the agreements signed by UGT and CCOO in Madrid, two trade unions that together in the ACBC do not reach 30% of the representation.

Company agreements to be negotiated in 2022

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