LAB says it will not support a pact that does not improve wages, and Mendia is committed to collective bargaining

Euskaraz irakurri: LABek ez du onartuko soldatak hobetuko ez dituen itunik, eta Mendia negoziazio kolektiboaren alde agertu da

The LAB union has warned it “will not feed or support anything” rental agreement that it does not advance “in a fairer and more equitable distribution of wealth” and improve wages. On the other hand, he has claimed pay increases based on the CPIthe founding of minimum wage at 1400 euros and a “comprehensive” tax reform.

The general coordinator of LAB, Garbine Aranburuand the secretary of Social Action, Endika Perezappeared at a press conference in Bilbao this Thursday to address the union’s “key challenges” to the new course.

Both have warned about “uncertainty and impoverishment” of “working class life”, that “it is not temporary or a meteorological phenomenon”, and that the rise in the cost of living “cannot be justified solely by the war in Ukraine”. “That explanation is not only simplistic, but also a mockery of people,” they warn.

Rather, they believe that “with the aim of concentrating wealth in fewer and fewer hands, political and economic decisions are being made” that “attack the lives of the working class and especially of women and migrants and racialized people”.

For LAB they live”multiple system crises that intersect”, and “the treatments designed by the economic, financial and political elites” are “wrong and in the same direction”.

Aranburu has warned that the forecasts for autumn-winter are “not rosy at all”, with a loss of purchasing power of employees who entered LAB since 2011 6000 euros on average.

“In the distribution of the wealth generated, the workers are getting less and more and more efforts are still required of us,” he added, confirming that “that’s what Iñigo Urkullu says when he talks about getting the income agreement back” .

In this way he alluded to the recent manifestations of the lehendakariwho has chosen to resume the “parked” debate on the income pact, which he considers “necessary”, and in this sense has called for “talking about it from the sphere of political agents, but also with economic and social agents”.

Collective bargaining at the center of the agreement

For its part, the Deputy Lehendakari and Minister of Labor and Employment, Idoia Mendiahas considered that the income agreement “must come from collective bargaining” and, along this line, will transfer to the economic and social actors, in the round that will take place in September, “the need for them to work towards reaching agreements , from the best knowledge everyone has in their company and their sector” and with “realism” and “pragmatism”.

For Mendia, “The heart of where the lease should come from is collective bargaining”that with the last labor reform of the PP “flew through the air”, but that has “restored” with the reform that Pedro Sánchez’s government had agreed with the social agents.

“It is from collective bargaining that they should be able to find the point of agreement and balance for employers and employees,” said counsel, who has warned that ‘We are not on the right track due to the wage devaluation’.

Mendia has emphasized that over the past year there have been “examples of various companies and sectors reaching an agreement as a result of collective bargaining,” depending on the “circumstances” of those companies or sectors.

Along these lines, he has indicated that, for his part, he will try to convey to the social and economic actors in the September round “the need that, on the basis of that experience and the best knowledge that everyone in his company and their sector, work to make those appointments that are desperately needed“.