The unions rearm with the labor reform, but avoid mobilizations

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UGT and CC OO gain power in deal negotiation, but still a long way from maximum levels of militants and deputies in companies

The unions will take to the streets on May 1 – in the more than 60 demonstrations called today – with more power and with a clear goal: to demand a wage increase in line with prices, so that the workers are not the losers of this new crisis.

Negotiations for a new agreement (AENC) with the employers that determine the rate of increase for this year and the next -along with other terms- have been crippled, but now they have a weapon they haven’t had for the past decade. The workers’ movement’s recently passed Congressional counter-reform has given them back the bargaining power that Mariano Rajoy’s government cut off in 2012.

But since last January, they have become more widely known when it comes to negotiating the agreements of the more than 7.6 million workers protected under this umbrella, according to late 2021 data. What is more than complicated is that the agreements (and thus the rights acquired) do not expire and remain in force until a new one is created, the so-called indefinite ultra-activity.

Another fundamental element has also been recovered: the predominance of the sector agreement over the corporate agreement, which can no longer be used to lower wages and place them below the sector markers. Likewise, contracts and subcontractors are now governed by the Sectoral Reference Agreement, which will prevent abuses and have increased the wages of a large proportion of workers.

The counter-labor reform has also vetoed the dismissal of companies that take advantage of one of the internal flexibility mechanisms they have created (i.e., the ERTE) to cope with future crises and has set clear limits on temporary work. , to the point that the permanent staff increases enormously in these first months of the year.

The unions have achieved a lot in the last two years (13 specifically) and very relevant, with important aspects such as all the aid launched in times of pandemic to mitigate the effects of this crisis (ERTE, self-employment benefits, ICO guarantees, etc. .), pensions, the regulation of workers’ rights such as telecommuting, the rider law or the historic increase in the interprofessional minimum wage (SMI), which eventually reached the level of 1,000 euros per month (in 14 payments), one of the big demands of the UGT and CC OO, the two main trade unions.

Gone are the cases of corruption such as the ‘black’ cards, the ERE in Andalusia or the training sessions that took their toll.

However, and despite having come back, gaining notoriety and regaining prestige in these last two complicated years, experiencing a pandemic, a volcano and now a war, UGT and CC OO are still far from their maximum. . levels of representation. Along the way, they have lost just over 400,000 members together.

If in 2009, each organization exceeded 1.2 million supporters, they are now close to a million, although they have not yet managed to exceed it. It is true that since they hit their lowest point in 2015, when CC OO fell below 910,000 members and UGT was 928,000, they have grown significantly year on year.

Unions keep quiet on the street. The times when they also demonstrated day in day out against the various governments and employers are long gone. We have to go back to November 2012 for the last general strike against a president, against Mariano Rajoy, who became the only director to suffer two consecutive strikes in the same year.

In addition to Rajoy, Adolfo Suárez, Felipe González, José María Aznar and even José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero experienced moments of tension with the unions, who called general strikes against them. Not against Pedro Sánchez, who has only had a slight mobilization for the time being due to the price increases. And all indications are that they will continue to do so. “There’s no reason to do this,” defends Mariano Hoya, UGT’s deputy secretary-general for Trade Union Policy. “In the past two years, rights have been rediscovered in a democracy like never before. On what basis does a union justify a mobilization against a government you sign with? Why? Why do the media say that? Why does the right say that?’, he says.

On the contrary, the unions predict a hot autumn against the bosses if the wage agreement is not unblocked and the purchasing power of the workers is guaranteed. “If there are no collective bargaining, the mobilizations will grow and become more tense,” warns Mari Cruz Vicente, Secretary of Union Action of the CC OO.

Yet there are no other organizations in Spain that have such support. No political party arouses such a following: the PP has about 780,000 members and the PSOE barely reaches 180,000.

On the contrary, those that are doing better than ever are the other two major unions: USO, with nearly 120,000 members, and CSIF, the majority organization among civil servants, with more than 230,000.

And not only have they lost supporters, they also do not have the same level of representation as before the 2008 crisis. For example, the weight of CC OO in companies has fallen from the 39% it represented in 2010 to the current 35.5%. : from over 116,000 to about 97,500 delegates.

And UGT’s decline is also notorious: its share of power has been reduced from 37.7% to 31.7% and the gap between the two is widening to more than four points. On the contrary, USO, the third union, with more than 11,200 delegates, and CSIF, with more than 10,500, have gained ground, as have another set of unions hitting quotas, similar to what happens in politics.

Source: La Verdad

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