They are preparing “big” mobilizations and threatening sector strikes to offset inflation
‘Salary or conflict’. This is the slogan of the demonstration called for next week by the unions CC OO and UGT in Madrid, but which will be attended by workers from all over Spain. The message couldn’t be clearer. With inflation around 9% and wage negotiations at the very least slowing down, unions are demanding wage increases that don’t imply a loss of purchasing power: “This crisis is not being paid for by working people.” It is your statement of principles. And the tools are clear: demonstrations and strikes.
The general secretary of the UGT, Pepe Álvarez, emphasizes that they are “mobilizing the whole country” and that we “will win with battle wages”. For its part, CC OO Trade Union Action’s Confederate Secretary Mari Cruz Vicente Peralta points out that “all wage increases of more than 6% have undergone an intense strike process.”
While agreements are still being signed on a daily basis, the reality is that there are many pending as they are stuck on economic issues as companies “offer very low pay raises,” explains the head of CCOO Union Action. “There is no reason to bet on wage moderation, companies have more benefits than ever and inflation is very high,” he concludes.
The unions are already working on the process of demonstrations and strikes, company by company or sector by sector, depending on the agreements. Negotiation paralysis has left at least a thousand sectoral or state agreements waiting to be signed. The agreements signed this year amount to 653 (461 companies and 192 outside the company) for one and a half million employees, less than half of the agreements agreed on the same dates last year (1436) covering 4.3 million pay rises. earners. If we factor in the multi-year agreements signed in previous years, currently “more than eight million employees have updated their salaries,” said Olimpia del Águila, CEOE representative at the Tripartite Social Dialogue tables.
The Union’s ambitions regarding wages have the support of the Minister of Labor, Yolanda Díaz. “Sales must go up in Spain,” the minister said, stressing that the labor reform approved by Pedro Sánchez’s government “is aimed at quality employment and salary increases.”
In reality, with the skyrocketing inflation, everyone thinks wages need to go up. The debate is about how much and especially about the wage guarantee clauses. In Spain, the average wage increase this year amounts to 2.5% by agreement, half of what has been agreed in the European Union (5%).
Not far in time are the talks between CEOE-Cepyme and the union centers to try to reach a new Labor and Collective Agreement (AENC). It would have been the fifth, but talks about the salary review clause broke down. The employer offered an increase of up to 9% in three years, a figure very similar to the figure the government had agreed with UGT and CC OO (not with CSIF) for civil servants. The unions were not far from the employers in the initial starting positions, but on the condition that there was a guarantee that the real CPI would gradually recover over three years.
For the Secretary of Institutional and Territorial Policy of the UGT, Cristina Estévez, “the employers’ refusal to negotiate a new labor agreement and collective bargaining is unjustified and borders on a lack of ethics.” Estévez explains that in many companies wages can be increased by 10% “because they have had substantial benefits”, and in others a 4.5% increase can be agreed with a review clause to preserve purchasing power.
In May, CEOE-Cepyme’s employers, faced with the uncertainty caused by the war between Russia and Ukraine and the escalation of prices, justified a stricter position in the negotiations: «It is necessary to make an effort to moderate wages to improve the viability and competitiveness of businesses and preserve the job. A substantial wage increase would go hand in hand with rising wage costs and would encourage the inflation spiral.’ For this reason, they have recommended companies not to tie wage increases to inflation and, if they do, set limits and under no circumstances be retroactive. Employer sources acknowledge that the indication this year is “everyone is doing what they can”.
Whether through strikes or simply through negotiation, the fact is that in several large companies the salary increase will take place with the CPI. For example, at Repsol, where the benefit has increased by 66% to September and whose framework agreement was signed in September and which affects 16,500 employees, guarantees a consolidated salary increase of 75% of the CPI until December 31, 2024; the remaining 25% is covered by a single fee, but is not consolidated.
For its part, in Enagás, the current agreement includes an update this year if the CPI is not reached. Cellnex’s collective labor agreements also link increases to the CPI. Mercadona has raised 6.5% this year and will revise it in 2023 based on the CPI. Mercedes employees in Vitoria will increase their salaries by 6% this year and those of Seat in Martorell will increase by 6.5% in January. The provincial metal deals, after weeks of strikes, also included high wage increases and review clauses.
The Bank of Spain warns of the dangers of linking wages to the CPI in the agreements because of the dangers of the ‘second round’ inflation process and warns that the percentage of employees covered by the wage guarantee clauses in the agreements is increasing, which could the for the first time once every nine years more than 20%. Currently, nearly 25% of workers have a review clause, compared to 15.7% last year, according to data from the Department of Labor.
The wage increases agreed in the accord over the past ten years have allowed workers to gain purchasing power in seven of the years, although they lost purchasing power in three of the years (2012, 2016 and 2021, to which will be added in 2022, which will probably close to 9% inflation).
“The employers show that what they want is conflict and if the companies play that, we are doomed,” said CC OO Mari Cruz Vicente Peralta.
Source: La Verdad
I’m Wayne Wickman, a professional journalist and author for Today Times Live. My specialty is covering global news and current events, offering readers a unique perspective on the world’s most pressing issues. I’m passionate about storytelling and helping people stay informed on the goings-on of our planet.
