The strike of cleaning staff in Barcelona, initially convened for April 24 to 29has been called off this Friday night two days before its start. This has been reported by the UGT union, which reports that, as a result of the negotiations they have had with the companies, finally it has been possible to reach a “good agreement” that allows the calling of the six-day strike.
Barcelona City Council had already put pressure on companies and staff to to make this dialogue possible and reach a common point of agreement to be able to avoid the strike, which would have caused many consequences such as dirt problems in the streets of the Catalan capital. He had even called for the responsibility of the citizens of Barcelona to avoid a waste catastrophe.
The Deal: What Do Workers Get?
The unions denounced salaries that had been frozen since 2018. According to the UGT, an agreement has been reached for the entire group that provides salary adjustments of up to 9.1%. Specifically, for the year 2019 the salary is increased by 0.6%, for 2020 it is not touched, for 2021 it is raised by 6% and for 2022 an advance of 2.5% has been agreed with a cap of negotiation up to 4%.
The agreement has been reached in the fifth meeting of the Joint Commission regarding the salary review of the past three years. CCOO, which had joined the parade, explained that will ratify the pre-agreement at a workers’ meeting.
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Thus, UGT, one of the unions that called the strike, has considered that this is a “good deal” which has made it possible to “avoid the strike”. He also added that 2022 has “started positively” with conditions that will be explained later.
Also CCOO has celebrated that a preliminary agreement has been reached good enough to call off the strike, but he regretted that companies often choose to push workers to the point of having to use this tool.