The fight against job insecurity and wages that are in line with the growth of the economy, goals set out by ELA

Feb 07, 2018

Having resisted the employers’ attacks over the past years, ELA is now addressing the 2018 collective bargaining with the goal of recovering what has been lost in recent years. Accordingly, ELA’s priorities during this year will be to bring an end to the situations of job insecurity, to reach wage rises in line with the growth of the economy and alleviate the consequences of the labour reforms. “Eutsi ta tira!” (“Let’s recover what is ours!”), will be the campaign’s slogan that has been presented this morning in Bilbao by the general secretary Adolfo Muñoz "Txiki" and the person in charge of collective bargaining, Pello Igeregi.

The leaders from ELA explained that, under the shelter of the labour reforms and thanks to the collaboration of the different administrations, employers have been worsening working conditions in recent years. And although at present more wealth than ever is being generated, in the Basque Country there are 100,000 jobs less than in 2008 and the income from the work has lost between 2.5 and 3.3 points in the distribution of wealth. In other words, if we had the same distribution percentage now as we had in 2008, 1,600 million euros more would correspond to us.

In addition, we have seen increased job insecurity. Half of the new contracts are for less than a month; 92% of the contracts are casual, and 18% of employment is part-time. And what is worse, due to the outsourcing phenomenon and to service companies, the workers have been supporting complete job insecurity.

In the public sector, casual work rates reach the figure of 40%. And although with total cynicism, wage rises are being asked for externally, we have started the year with public employees’ wages frozen and with losses in purchasing power.

In this situation ELA believes that 2018 should be the year of the counterattack. In the first place, our main priority must be to obtain specific steps to face up to job insecurity in each area.

In second place, we must demand a correlation between economic growth and job creation and wage rises. On this point, our claims will be specific for the different sectors and companies. In any event, the minimum wage of 1,200 € and recovery of purchasing power will be indisputable points.

And in third place, we must place emphasis on the guarantees of application of the agreements that are signed with ELA. These three priorities will make up the core claims to be made in ELA’s collective bargaining process.

Taking into account the employers’blocking attitude, ELA foresees that this year’s collective bargaining process is going to be conflictive. In the work centres, the workers are showing that they are fed up, along with their dissatisfaction. They won't tollerate their exploitation, and ELA will do their bit in this counterattack phase, helping with the organisation and the strike fund.