May 1 between demands and calls for struggle and confrontation

Basque unions face the commemoration of the First of May between calls for struggle and social confrontation to achieve improvements and demands aimed at achieving better salaries and shorter working hours.

In HegoaldeFor another year, the representative unions will celebrate the day divided, with the with the exception of CCOO and UGT of Euskadi, who will do it together; and for another year Bilbao will be the main stage of the demonstrations called, with the exception of the demonstration promoted by LABORATORY, which will bring together its militants and sympathizers in Pamplona. For his part, Euskal Herriko Kontseilu Sozialista (EHKS) has organized a demonstration in Bilbao under the slogan ‘There is an alternative’. The mobilization will start around 1:00 PM from the Sacred Heart and end around 2:30 PM in the Plaza del Gas.

In Iparralde, on the other hand, five unions have called for a joint demonstration in Baiona (Lapurdi). Labor unions CFDT, CGT, FSU, LAB and Solidaires They will mobilize under the motto “It is not a fatal accident. For the distribution of goods!” The demonstrators will leave at 11 a.m. from the union headquarters of Santa Úrsula, in the Santizpiritu neighborhood. The demonstration will end in the market square, where, as the organizers report, “a union village” will be organized, with food and drinks, as “it is an important moment to talk among the workers.”

Bilbao’s Gran Vía will also be filled again with thousands of people in response to the call for demonstrations from ELA, CCOO and UGT, as well as other minority unions, who will emphasize their demands and strategies in the context of the International Workers’ Day.

DE Athe majority union, has called for mobilizations both in Bilbao and Pamplonaalthough the Secretary General, Mitxel Lakuntza, will address his people and urge them to fight against the mobilization being organized in the capital of Biscay.

“Antolatu, borrokatu, irabazi (organize, fight, win)” is the motto chosen by ELA this year, based on the belief that “achievements for the working class” only come from trade union struggle and that “social change will only come through political, social and trade union confrontation,” said Lakuntza.

The union leader defends that “the more trade union struggles and the more strikes, the more and better agreements” will be reached and insists that achievements for the working class will not come “neither from the institutions nor from the tables of social dialogue. ”

Also in favor of mobilization, but with a different analysis in relation to social dialogue, which considers it as a valid instrument to promote the realization of social and labor rights, CCOO and UGT of Euskadi This May 1, they have focused on demanding better salaries and a reduction in working hours.

These unions will hold joint demonstrations under the slogan “Enpleguaren alde. Less working hours, more salaries”. In Bilbao, the Secretaries General of CCOO and UGT of Euskadi, Loli García and Raúl Arza, will participate respectively, for whom “the time has come” to shorten the working day and ask for better salaries in a context of “brutal” it comes business for the better.

For LABORATORYthis May 1 is special because this year the Abertzale union is immersed in the celebration of the 50th anniversary of its founding and will commemorate Labor Day with a “national” mobilization in Pamplona.

Your demonstration starts from Castle Square and travels through the streets of the Navarrese capital to the Anaitasuna Pavilionwhere the main event of the day will take place, followed by a meal and concerts throughout the afternoon.

On May 1, the center reaffirmed its original commitment, namely “continuing to open the way to national liberation and the social transformation of the Basque people through the organization and struggle of the workers,” the center said.

Steilas He has called for a demonstration from Alameda in Errenteria at 9:45 am; in Bilbao at 11:30 am, from Gran Vía 56; in Pamplona at 12:00 from Plaza de los Ajos; and in Vitoria-Gasteiz at 12:30 from the Palace of Europe.

On the occasion of the celebration of International Workers’ Day, the Government of Navarre has expressed its commitment and defense of the fundamental principles and rights at work declared by the ILO as a fundamental element for fair economic and social prosperity.

For his part, the acting spokesperson said Basque governmentBingen Zupiria has reiterated its commitment to “negotiation, dialogue and agreement” in the workplace.

EH Bildupointed out in a statement that “now” is the time to defend workers’ rights and that “the political and social conditions exist to promote their achievements.”