Unions encourage an escalation of strikes for wage improvements

The streets of Cádiz They have stopped smelling of barricade smoke and ash for a week. The metal workers of the ‘Silver Cup’ have starred in one of the strikes more intense in recent years, which has been settled with a salary increase of 2% in the new agreement. Although the focus was in Cádiz, the labor disputes are reproduced in the industry of The Navy, in cleaning Castellón, in front of the headquarters of Unicaja or in the tram of Zaragoza; among others. And although the spark of these strikes has ignited in a disorganized way, the unions are preparing to feed that flame and threaten a winter and even a hot spring. Willing to dispute the benefits of the incipient economic recovery, in the face of a skyrocketing CPI and wages that do not keep track of it. CCOO y UGT They are preparing mobilizations and on December 12 in Barcelona a joint mobilization with social entities is scheduled. Although the protests go beyond the majority unions, and others such as USO, CGT or the IAC also promote actions.

Industry workers are leading the breakdown of social peace that has prevailed since the COVID broke out. “An enforced social peace“, points out the Secretary of Labor of the Generalitat, Enric Vinaixa; responsible for labor mediations on Catalan soil. Statistics show that conflicts begin to emerge from their winter quarters after the first 20 months of the pandemic; although the numbers of strikes and work stoppages are still at levels well below those of before the covid. According to the latest report from the CEOE employer on ‘Labor market and collective bargaining’, so far this year a total of 517 strikes have been registered, with 260,142 workers involved and 9 million hours lost; 40% more than those registered in the same period of 2020, when 6.4 million hours were lost. Although a still much smaller number compared to the labor conflict that it existed before the arrival of the covid, when in 2019 26.1 million work hours were lost; according to the records prepared by CEOE. There are mixed conflicts on the offensive, for salary improvements, with others on the defensive, to avoid closures and relocations.

“There is a general feeling of uncertainty, with supplies, the new variants of the virus, about the effectiveness of European funds, about how the labor reform will be closed … which can precipitate some conflicts,” says the professor of labor law and Social Security of the UB, Jordi García Viña. That is to say, workers do not know what will happen tomorrow, they are suspicious of future promises that the company can offer them and resort to mobilizations to tie improvements now, coinciding with the generalized price increase fueled by the rise in electricity.

“In most cases, an agreement will be reached before even striking, because in the end the two parties have an interest in reaching an agreement. What it does not remove, in situations in which right now workers are doubting whether to go on strike or not, conflicts like the one in Cádiz can generate a certain contagion effect and lead the decision to strike. Until this situation of generalized uncertainty is cleared up, technically the possibility of conflicts arising is very real & rdquor ;, adds Viña. In Cádiz, in Pilkington or in the meat sector, for example, there has been an agreement; while in the cleaning of Castellón the conflict continues, despite the fact that CCOO and UGT have ignored it.

“The employers have not wanted to negotiate wages until now and now they do not want to pay the rise in the CPI. And when a conflict explodes it can be very difficult to control. Either we put the batteries and negotiate or we will have a winter and a hot spring. Very hot & rdquor ;, warns the Deputy Secretary General for Union Policy of the UGT, Mariano Hoya. “A new AENC [Acuerdo de Empleo y Negociación Colectiva] it would help & rdquor ;, agrees his CCOO counterpart, Mari Cruz Vicente. The AENC is a kind of convention agreement that sets the collective bargaining guidelines for sectors and companies. And, among others, it incorporates the recommended salary ranges for the coming years. The last one was signed by CCOO and UGT with CEOE and included a salary increase of between 2 and 3% for the 2018-2020 period.

For the moment, the social agents have been unable to renew this pact and the employers reiterate their refusal in 2021 to reopen this drawer. “We are in a delicate situation, also worldwide, and we must be very cautious,” claimed the CEOE president this past Monday, Antonio Garamendi, in an act in Madrid. A few days before, its ‘number 2’, Íñigo Fernández de Mesa, insisted from the S’Agaró conference that wages have already recovered the pre-ndemic level while business profits are still 10% below.

Industry leads protests

The template Nissan It has returned this past week to cut the Ronda de Barcelona when it sees the reindustrialization of its factories in danger. 32 kilometers from those cuts, the staff of Mahle, on Vilanova i la Geltrú, prepares its mobilizations before the announcement of the closure of the plant in less than two months. Following the Mediterranean coast, the workers of Pilkington in Sagunto they have just put an end to their protests against the threat of closure and have obtained guarantees of continuity until 2024. Their metal colleagues from Alicante They have not had the same success and, after two days of strike, they have not been able to agree on an upward revision of their agreement. They have already advanced that in December there will be more strikes.

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The car is going through a perfect storm, originated between the transition to the electric vehicle and the semiconductor crisis, which has caused the CCOO and UGT to organize protests throughout the sector to pressure the Government and demand solutions to cushion the social impact of the process. Industry, the most favorable terrain for the centrals to organize and mobilize, is being the spearhead of the incipient wave of protests; However, they are not confined only to the secondary sector and involve some sectors of the service sector and part of the public sector. “It is more likely that sectoral protests, such as those of the car, will be perpetuated than we will not go to a generalized conflict scenario. Although everything will depend on how long the inflation escalation lasts & rdquor ;, points out the secretary of Treball, Enric Vinaixa.