Workers from the Residencias de Bizkaia convene a march on foot throughout Bizkaia in view of the unwillingness to reach an agreement by the employer associations LARES and ELBE

Oct 23, 2017

The workers from the Residencias de Bizkaia who are on strike will start a march on foot throughout Bizkaia on next Tuesday, the 17th, which will end on Saturday, the 21st at the Regional Government of Bizkaia. They are speaking out against the fact that the employers’ associations LARES and ELBE are showing no wish to reach an agreement that brings an end to the dispute.

With this march, they intend to allege that following 350 days on strike and after reaching a preliminary agreement ten days ago with the majority employers’ association GESCA, to date the other two employers’ associations in the sector, ELBE and LARES are showing no wish to sign the collective agreement and therefore to bring an end to the labour and social dispute.

For the workers on strike, the position held by the employers’ associations is very serious, particularly after the announcement by the DFB of cancelling the new conditions documents to help an agreement to be reached.

The workers from the Residencias de Bizkaia state that the position held by these employers’ associations and mainly by LARES is intolerable and very serious. Since this employers’ association, which says it is “non-profit making”, has residential centres amongst its main members where the disposition of beds by the Regional Government of Bizkaia makes up between 80 and 100% of the occupied beds.

Additionally, LARES has large residential centres all over Bizkaia such as the Fundación Aspaldiko in Portugalete, the Residencia Misericordia in Bilbao, Fundación Miranda in Baracaldo, Residencias Aita Menni in Bilbao and Durango or the historic Conde Aresti in Bilbao. These fully occupied residential centres obtain profits that in some centres reach figures that are above one million euros per year. The workers in the residential centres also denounce that in many of these centres the Mayors of the towns or the actual Minister for Social Action can be found specifically on the governing boards, such as the case of Residencia Misericordia.

In view of this, the workers are asking themselves, is the Regional Government of Bizkaia going to continue using beds in these residential centres, when there is no wish to reach an agreement and end this labour and social dispute once and for all? Is the Regional Government not going to take any steps to unblock this situation?

Meanwhile, the workers from the Residencias de Bizkaia will take to the streets again and this time, they have made the decision to march on foot to continue making the dispute visible and to directly question the local institutions and these residential homes that are blocking any possible agreement.

The march on foot will be made up of five stages: it will start on the 17th of October and it will end on Saturday, the 21st of the same month. The first stage will start in Bilbao (Residencia Misericordia) and it will end at Cruces. The second stage will follow the left hand bank and will start in Baracaldo, ending in Portugalete. The third stage will take place on the right hand bank: it will start at the Suspension Bridge and it will end in Leioa. The fourth stage will begin in Zornotza and will finish in Durango. The last stage will start in Basauri and will end at the Palacio Foral, in Bilbao.

The workers of the Residencias de Bizkaia are calling the citizens of Bizkaia to accompany them on this march and once and for all to reach a sectorial agreement that contains a 35 hour working week, more staff, an improvement in the quality of the care, salaries of 1,200 euros and an improvement in the Temporary Sick Leave coverage and in the different bonuses.