Valencia (EFE).- The May Day demonstration in Valencia has demanded an improvement in labor income and has criticized the “irresponsibility” of the employers, and has called to support the options for progress and a third government of the Botànic in the Valencian Community in the next elections.
The general secretaries of CCOO PV and UGT-PV, Ana García and Ismael Sáez, respectively, have closed the Labor Day march in Valencia with their speeches, whose motto was “Raise wages, lower prices and distribute benefits”, which has registered a lower participation than previous calls on a morning with temperatures of 29 degrees in the city.
The President of the Generalitat, Ximo Puig, who participated in the demonstration along with some of his ministers, has also demanded better wages for workers through social dialogue and has indicated that much remains to be done because there are still more than 300,000 people without jobs. in the Valencian Community.
UNIONS WARN OF MOBILIZATIONS
The general secretary of CCOO PV has assured in her final speech that inequality and labor and social poverty “cannot continue to grow” because workers cannot continue paying for the crises, and has stated that if there is no agreement within the framework of the collective bargaining will increase conflict.
García and the general secretary of UGT-PV have highlighted the achievements made on issues such as the Minimum Wage, pensions and labor reform, and have demanded that companies pitch in in this inflationary crisis to raise wages and reach an agreement for employment and collective bargaining.
For his part, Ismael Sáez has lamented that the employers are “absent” to renegotiate the Agreement for Employment in Collective Bargaining and has asked that they “truly do an exercise in patriotism and pitch in.”
In the Valencian Community, the UGT representative said, social dialogue has been the norm to respond to difficulties, to the effects of the pandemic and the war; but also for the design of an economic policy that emphasizes the improvement of the Valencian productive model, to generate more and better employment without undermining public services.
Both unions have again demanded fair financing for the Valencian Community and have called, with a view to May 28, for the support of the public for the options for progress and for the constitution of a third Botànic, in the face of “regression and a return to the logics of economic liberalism with extreme right included”.
POLITICAL PARTICIPATION
The President of the Generalitat, Ximo Puig, who has participated in the May Day demonstration for yet another year, has highlighted that the social dialogue in the Community has allowed progress in job creation but there are still more than 300,000 people without jobs.
He has advocated for the improvement of working conditions and wages at a time complicated by inflation, as well as for progress in rights and social achievements to further unite society.
The Compromís candidate for the Presidency of the Generalitat, Joan Baldoví, has defended that it is a merit in public contracts that companies have fair wages, has demanded fair financing and has opted for a 32-hour day.
The second vice-president of the Consell and Unides Podem candidate to preside over the Generalitat, Héctor Illueca, has indicated that progress and social rights are achieved through collective action and mobilization.
The mayor of Valencia, Joan Ribó, has highlighted the historical employment data in the city and has announced the creation of a municipal fund to invest 3.5 million euros in companies in strategic sectors to generate green and quality employment and achieve the climate neutrality.
THE MANIFESTATION
Demonstrations called by CCOO PV and UGT-PV have also been held in the Valencian Community in the cities of Alicante, Alcoi and Elche and at 12 noon in Castelló.
Collectives such as the Círculo Internacionalista, a communist organization of workers and students that volunteers in needy neighborhoods and fights against injustice, have participated for the first time in the Valencia march.
Also for the first time the Abolitionist Front of the Valencian Country attended, which has carried four banners against prostitution and whose members dressed in the red tunic and white cap from the series “The Handmaid’s Tale”.
Among the placards that paraded through the demonstration could be seen a “Mercarroba” ticket that asked for more salary and less work, from the Working Youth Against Precarity, and a banner claiming Compromís “for a 32-hour day with the same salary”.
In addition to this march, CNT, COS and Intersindical Valenciana have called an alternative demonstration, with a different route but which also started from the Plaza de San Agustín, although half an hour after the main one.