Santa Cruz de Tenerife (EFE).- Various demonstrations have toured the streets of the Canary Islands this Monday to celebrate a May Day marked by the demand for wage increases in the face of the high cost of basic products and a greater and fairer distribution of wealth , with the 28M elections as a backdrop.
The main union centrals have exhibited unity in a day of sun and heat, with the presence of numerous political positions in the two capitals of the Canary Islands, in which they have vindicated their economic, social and labor agenda.
Around 3,500 people, according to union sources, around a thousand, according to police sources, have gathered in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, where the demonstration has passed between the Weyler and La Candelaria squares, enlivened by a batucada and a whistle concert.
Before the delegation left, the leaders of the CCOO and UGT in the Canary Islands have agreed to demand wage increases and have warned of a scenario of conflict if the employer does not agree to collective bargaining.
Inocencio González, general secretary of the CCOO in the Canary Islands, has emphasized that at this time the employers’ benefits are higher than in the pre-pandemic era, and has warned that “it is in their hands” to avoid mobilizations.
He stressed that there are around half a thousand collective agreements to be negotiated and that the unions are willing to sit down at the table “as long as it is guaranteed that there will be no loss of purchasing power.”
González recalled that the 2020-2022 period closed with an average increase in collective agreements of 3%, while year-on-year inflation was 8.2%.
He has abounded that the employers should not “wait for changes in political cycles, because that would be very bad news”, and he has anticipated that this month of May “is going to be fundamental. We are not going to wait indefinitely. If not, we will go agreement by agreement, and where we are capable of mobilizing, we will do so”.
Regarding the proximity of the regional and local elections, the general secretary of the CCOO in the Canary Islands has proclaimed that “we are absolutely autonomous and politically independent. What we are not going to be is equidistant or remain indifferent ”, and he added:“ Not one step back in the rights that we have achieved ”.
His counterpart in the UGT, Manuel Navarro, has warned of “the threat” posed by the access of “the right” to the institutions after 28M because his labor and economic policies, he said, “go totally against the interests of the workers”.
Navarro has indicated that in the Canary Islands there are 400,000 people pending the updating of agreements, the services sector being the most affected, and more specifically, commerce, in addition to construction and the primary sector.
He has pointed out that despite the “great increase” in the interprofessional minimum wage that has occurred in recent years, a “class of poor workers has been generated because the rise in the shopping basket has almost increased wages by 20% by 3%” .
Regarding the increase in productivity sought by the employers, he pointed out that talking about this “when there are miserable salaries, when wealth is not distributed, is trying to deceive. It’s kind of silly.”
Jairo Gonzalo, secretary of organization and finance of USO Canarias, has indicated that “today more than ever” makes sense “the fight for the eight-hour day to work, eight to rest and eight to sleep”, and for the digital disconnection, and has appreciated that the different plants have put aside their discrepancies.
In the demonstration in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, several hundred people (around 2,000 according to union sources) attended the march, in which the Nueva Canarias candidate for the Presidency of the Canary Islands Government, Román Rodríguez, said that “we are At a very important moment, the public sector has done its homework, pensions and salaries of public employees have been raised, as well as the interprofessional minimum wage, and a labor reform that consolidates rights has been carried out, “now it’s time for collective bargaining between employers and unions improve conditions in the private world”.
Rodríguez stressed that there are 400,000 workers in the Canary Islands still pending collective bargaining and it is necessary to “continue to improve working conditions”.
Likewise, the candidate of Podemos for the Presidency of the Government of the Canary Islands, Noemí Santana, has assured before beginning the demonstration that “throughout this legislature, the arguments of doomsayers have been dismantled who said that, if labor rights were improved to Through the labor reform, it was going to negatively affect the economy and nothing could be further from reality”.
The economic data is good, with a rise in the minimum interprofessional wage and more and more employment is being created, “but we must continue fighting to achieve better conditions and an increase in the wage bill,” according to Santana.
For his part, the Canary Islands Coalition candidate for the Presidency of the Government of the Canary Islands, Fernando Clavijo, has advocated in a statement for a great Pact for Employment in the Canary Islands that “serves as a brake on precarious work as a result of the policies of the Socialist Party ”.
In his opinion, “today it is more necessary than ever to recover the spirit of Labor Day to remember that the quality of employment must be above the figures and that condition is not met in the Canary Islands. Today there are more workers who do not make ends meet than ever”.
Also present at the march in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria were the PSOE candidate for Mayor of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Carolina Darias, and the Minister of Economy, Knowledge and Employment of the Government of the Canary Islands, Elena Mañez, among other representatives and candidates.
Darias has considered that it is necessary to achieve less precariousness in employment and considers that the labor reform supposes “a before and after”, but it is necessary to continue deepening the rights of workers.
Mañez has highlighted the importance of supporting the demands and rights of workers, in addition to “celebrating all that we have advanced and achieved in this legislature.”
He believes that it is necessary to continue improving, for which “social dialogue is essential”.
In the demonstration in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, socialist officials such as the president of the Cabildo, Pedro Martín, the president of the Parliament of the Canary Islands, Gustavo Matos, and the organization secretary of the PSOE in the islands, Nira Fierro, have been seen.
Martín has praised the economic and labor policies of the Government of Pedro Sánchez, especially a labor reform that “gives guarantees, stability and future prospects for workers much better than what we had when we arrived.”
Fierro has assessed that thanks to these policies, also promoted by the Government of the Canary Islands, today the archipelago has “the lowest unemployment rates in the last fifteen years”, and added that it will be necessary to “continue to improve and dignify employment”, and this will be the “maximum” of the next executive, who is convinced that Ángel Víctor Torres will lead again.
Matos has indicated for his part that “it does not matter, it is not the same that the left governs as the right”, and has called on the workers of the Canary Islands to be “aware of who defends their interests and rights”.