Pamplona (EFE).- The different unions have celebrated May Day in Navarra with rallies and demonstrations in which they have mixed the festive tone with demands and appeals to the union struggle to achieve their objectives.
UGT and CCOO require employers to “raise wages and distribute benefits”
The UGT and CCOO unions have once again shared demands on May Day in Navarra, with a large demonstration behind the banner calling for ‘Raise wages, lower prices, distribute benefits’, with which they have toured the center of Pamplona to arrive at the headquarters of the Business Confederation of Navarra (CEN).
Hundreds of people have joined the call, among them a representation of the PSN headed by its general secretary, María Chivite, in a march that has mixed the festive and the demanding, animated by the rhythm of a batukada, with numerous union flags, sectoral banners and shouts of demand for their demands.
“Defending pensions is everyone’s business”, “VivasLibresUnidas. Berdintasunaren alde”, “Strike 5-6M passenger transport”, “Let’s save the hotel industry. SOS Agreement” or “Raise wages guarantee rights. Capitalism ruins us. PCE”, are some of the banners that followed the main one, supported by, among others, the general secretaries of the UGT and CCOO in Navarra.
In statements to journalists at the exit of the demonstration from the union headquarters, the general secretary of the UGT in Navarra, Jesús Santos, explained that the motto on the banner demands the “right” of the workers, because “we have complied at the time of crisis experienced with the pandemic. We have complied by losing purchasing power in wages. And we have complied by setting an example and being in those jobs that were necessary for society”.
“From that moment on it was up to us and we had the right not to lose purchasing power in our salaries, which is what has been happening,” lamented a Santos who, therefore, has asked for the rise in the CPI in salaries and the consequent negotiation in agreements that are not signed or blocked in Navarra.
The march ended in front of the CEN headquarters “because the slowdown they are causing is staged there, stopping the agreements so as not to raise wages,” he stated.
In any case, he has valued the union work in recent months, in which agreements have been reached with the central government for the pension reform, the labor reform and the Minimum Interprofessional Wage.
He closed his message with a call, in this pre-election period, for workers to reflect: “It is not the same who governs. Not a single vote to the parties that have turned their backs on the workers”, Santos asked.
Chechu Rodriguez, general secretary of the CCOO in Navarra, has also made businessmen ugly with their attitude, since we see “at a time when their profits are growing astronomically, how they are having an impact on the prices of basic food products and others costs of raw materials”, which directly affects the wages of workers and the living conditions of citizens.
“That’s why we protested at the employer’s headquarters, because we also demand that they lift their feet from collective bargaining, that they negotiate a decent wage, decent working conditions for the workers who have been suffering and paying for three consecutive crises in these last two decades,” he said.
Beyond this, it has valued social dialogue, through which the unions “together with the left-wing and progressive governments of this country have made it possible for people to live better with the increase in the Minimum Interprofessional Wage, improve their working conditions, work with the labor reform or have more dignified working and living conditions”.
For this reason, Rodríguez has also called on the workers to “vote for progressive positions, fundamentally for leftist positions.”
LAB manifests itself for “transformative policies that change the course”
The LAB union has declared itself in favor of “transformative policies that really change the course” on this May Day in Pamplona, where it has denounced that “self-congratulatory speeches and political decisions” that are made “do not guarantee a dignified life”. and the “greed” of the employers that “blocks” the collective agreements.
At noon, a demonstration headed by a banner that read their demand in favor of this change of course with the slogan “Egiteko beste mundu bat (To make another world) started from the Plaza del Castillo. Distribute to transform”, along with others with specific demands such as an increase in pensions to 1,080 euros. The union has also demonstrated in Tudela.
In the capital, in statements to the media, the spokesperson for LAB in Navarra, Imanol Karrera, has denounced the “blockade that the employers are establishing”, which he has accused of not updating the workers’ collective agreements so that guarantee their purchasing power and to refuse to talk about a minimum wage of 1,400 euros so that everyone can have a sufficient income.
At the same time, it has censured the blocking of “fundamental” agreements for them, such as that of residences, and in this sense, after remarking that the feminized sectors “need better conditions”, it has stressed the need to “take care of the people who take care of us”, despite what “the employers continue to block the first collective agreement for residences in Navarra.”
“The consequence is that we are in crisis and they are not the justifications that they usually give,” he warned, to assert that “what is behind it is the greed of the employers to agglutinate more and more wealth.”
Karrera has also questioned the president of the Foral Government, María Chivite, who “these days makes self-congratulatory speeches” and who has recalled that “half of the Navarrese workers do not have a decent job or do not have an income to guarantee a dignified life”.
For all these reasons, he has concluded that current policies “do not guarantee a dignified life” and has urged “to advance in transformative policies that really change the course” and has called on the working class to “organize and fight” and That is essential to move forward.
And that, he has pointed out, is what they are going to do from today and in the coming academic year, of which he has advanced that “it will be important to achieve and conquer new rights and above all to improve the working conditions of employees and public services”.
At the end of the march, in his speech, he pointed out that for them “independence and internationalism go hand in hand” and for this reason they want “a new world in which all peoples are free and equal; a new world in which all working people are free and equal”.
ELA advocates “confrontation” in the face of the impoverishment of workers
The ELA union has advocated this May 1st in Pamplona for “confrontation” and not for social dialogue or the income pact in the face of the “impoverishment of the working class” precisely when the banks and energy companies multiply their benefits.
The ELA coordinator in Navarra, Imanol Pascual, who led the union’s demonstration in Pamplona, told journalists behind a banner with the slogan “Borrokan, irabatzeko” (In the fight, to win), followed by several hundred of people with union flags.
It was followed by other banners with sectoral slogans such as “Borrokan Senior Citizen Homes”, “H&M this agreement is out of fashion”, “1 May. Sports management on strike. 197 days violating our rights”, while the protesters chanted slogans such as “Borroka da bide bakarra” (The fight is the way), “Gora, gora, gora, langileok borroka” (Long live the workers’ struggle), “TAV money for social spending” or “Here we work, here we decide”.
Before starting the march, Imanol Pascual has exposed his complaint to the “phase of impoverishment of the working class while the banks, energy companies and distributors are multiplying their benefits.”
“And all this does not happen by chance but because the institutions continue to apply neoliberal policies. And within these institutions there is also the Government of Navarra, which prefers to end its budget years with a surplus rather than attend to social needs, a Government that systematically refuses to carry out any type of tax reform”, he lamented.
With all this, Pascual has set the demands of the ELA union for this day in three: Pensions, salaries and public services.
Regarding pensions, he has denounced that the reform in the approval process, “contrary to the propaganda that is being made, contains cuts” and does not reverse previous agreements such as the delay of the retirement age to 67 years.
Regarding wages, he has warned that “there is a joint strategy between the Government of Navarra and the employer so that wages have less and less weight”, with an action by the employer “blocking collective bargaining” and by another from the Government of Navarra applying a salary increase to public employees below the CPI.
The third pillar of the claim stems from the conviction that “Navarre is allocating insufficient money for public services”, and he has given Osasunbidea as an example, where “today the same percentage of GDP is allocated as in the days of UPN”.
“This not only calls into question the role of the Government of Navarra, but the role of all the political parties to the left of UPN: PSN, Geroa Bai, EH Bildu, Podemos, Izquierda-Ezkerra, which have approved eight budgets in Navarra and They have been unable to reverse this situation,” he said.
Given all this, ELA believes that its contribution is to organize the workers. “Union achievements are not going to come from social dialogue, but from the capacity for confrontation, and for that the Caja de Resistencia and independence from political parties are essential,” he has settled.
Steilas, ESK, CGT, CNT and Solidari demand “Unity, dignity and struggle”
The Steilas, ESK, CGT, CNT and Solidari unions have demonstrated one more year united on this May 1st, in which they have demanded “Bide Bakarra. Unity, dignity and struggle” through the streets of Pamplona.
There have been half a thousand people, according to the government delegation, who have attended the unitary call, which has started from the Plaza de los Ajos at noon behind a banner with the slogan “Maiatzak 1. Bide bakarra, Unity, dignity, fight”, which was followed by other banners and numerous flags of the different unions.
“Build to win. CGT” or “Anarcho-syndicalism. Yesterday, today and always” have been other of the slogans displayed on the different banners, with which they have marched through the Old Town of Pamplona until ending in the Plaza del Vínculo.