Busturia (Bizkaia) (EFE)
Then, he lamented, the so-called non-union movement “burst onto the scene, frightened the union organizations, imposed its framework, its law” and “forced” them to get up from the table.
Erkoreka discussed the labor conflict in the Ertzaintza at the end of the meeting that the Basque Government Council held in Torre Madariaga, in Busturia (Bizkaia).
demonstration of ertzainas
The accesses to Torre Madariaga have been guarded by a large presence of uniformed Ertzaintza agents while hundreds of their colleagues demonstrated outside.
Convened by the Erne, Esan, Euspel and Sipe unions – all four represented at the negotiating table – and between whistles and shouts of “Erkoreka resignation”, the concentrates have demanded from the Basque Government “a true negotiation” of their working conditions.
Josu Erkoreka, Security Councilor, at the end of the meeting of the Basque Government Council. EFE/Luis Tejido.
In his appearance, Erkoreka has assured that it is “false” that the agreement governing the conditions of the Ertzaintza has not been modified since 2012 since it has been done three times and in agreement with the unions.
In addition, as he has said, the professional career has been approved, which is involving an investment of 21 million euros to be distributed among the 8,000 agents that make up the Ertzaintza staff.
Forty meetings with unions
He has also detailed that his department has held more than forty meetings with the unions between bilateral meetings and the negotiating table.
“The department -he said- has not gotten up from the table. It has been the unions that, surely gripped by the pressure exerted on them by the non-union movement, have not felt capable of continuing to negotiate within the parameters” in which they had been doing it.
He specified that about ten days ago the department held a meeting with the unions in which the points of the platform of demands raised were reviewed.
He added that there was a point, the one referring to the demand for a linear salary increase for all ertzainas, which cannot be adopted at the sectoral table, but rather corresponds to the general table that affects all Basque civil servants.
Erkoreka has reiterated his department’s willingness to negotiate, “but I understand – he has qualified – that the unions express that reverential fear before the union movement”.
He has also said that he understands that “sometimes they express radical differences between what they comment in private and later in public” due to the “pressure” exerted on them by a movement of which, according to what he has said, “it is not known who integrates it, how is organized”, or “how it makes decisions”.
He has asked that the use of terms “in a false tone” be abandoned after considering it a “nonsense” to use words such as “war”, alluding to the affirmation of the unions that the speeches against the Basque police by the autonomous Administration have the purpose of “declaring war” on the ertzainas.
Salary increase claim
Regarding the claim for a salary increase of 1,100 euros per month for the ertzainas that the asindical movement has sent to the unions, he said: “Each unemployed person, each citizen from their professional perspective will be able to assess whether it is fair or not” .
From the “unity unit” that the Erne, Esan, Euspel and Sipe unions have formed, Unai Garabieta has called for dialogue to “end” a labor conflict that “has reached an unsustainable entrenchment point.”
The protests of the ertzainas in demand of a decent agreement have been increasing after hundreds of agents outside the unions demonstrated in Bilbao at the beginning of May.
Garabieta has indicated that “whoever has put on the table” the request for a salary increase of 1,100 euros per month, alluding to the non-union platform, “will have to explain why” they have done so.
The members of the trade unions, as he stated, “we are not people far from social reality and we know what the situation is that workers are going through in Euskadi”.
Professionalism at the pace of the Tour
He has also ensured that during the Tour de France through Euskadi the ertzainas will work “as always, with professionalism”.
“We are risking our prestige as an institution -he added- and the ertzainas are the first to be interested in making this go well, but we question whether today, as our way of working is focused, we are capable of responding to that challenge. On the part of the ertzainas, we are capable ”, she has affirmed.
Garabieta has accused the department of not having a “true will” to negotiate and has lamented that “responsibility for what is happening in the Ertzaintza is dumped on the agents.”
In addition, he told Lehendakari Urkullu that “if the Ertzaintza gives a bad image, it will also be because, at least, part of the Basque Government is giving a bad image.”
He has also criticized that “focusing the debate on disagreements within the collective between some ertzainas and others is to divert attention” from the existing problem.
For its part, the non-union platform “Ertzainas en lucha” has valued the “force” shown in today’s mobilization and has called for unity with the unions, from which it has demanded weekly meetings and to be present at meetings with the Basque Government. As he has clarified in a note, the platform “has not come to replace” the power stations. EFE