Residential, family and trade union workers have concentrated on Boulevard Donostiarra on the occasion of International Day of the Elderly. The Provincial Council of Gipuzkoa and the companies have denounced that in the pandemic situation they have not given "an adequate response" and have called on the public to continue the strike on 6 October.
Residential workers have been demanding decent working conditions for the sector for more than two years. In these two years, 243 days of strike have been held in the Basque Country and Navarre. The associations of Relatives of Gipuzkoa and Irauli Zaintza, the unions LAB and ELA and the Dignasuna group have held a concentration on the day of the elderly, in which they have criticized the deterioration of the conditions. At a press conference they reported that “there is still much to be done”: “Residences are worse than before the pandemic; the lack of regular staff is more pronounced than ever due to increased workloads”.
Thus, during the concentration an appeal has been made to the citizens to participate in the strike on 6 October: “We all have to know that we are in an increasingly ageing society and that we have to ensure free, dignified and high-quality public social services,” they said.
For the moment, a day of strike
The demonstration on 6 October will start at 11:00 hours from the Gipuzkoa Plaza in Donostia-San Sebastián. Residence worker San José de Ordizia, Sandra López, explains that it will be possible to “return to the streets”: “We will restart those 243 days and the year and a half in which family members are also fighting”.
Mr Lopez has made it clear that it will be one day and that they will then have to decide on the basis of the circumstances whether they will take further action: “We are valuing it, the workers understand that we cannot strike until now; we are responsible and consistent and now the priority is our age.” In any event, they will continue to fight to demand decent working conditions and quality service.
“In the residences there is a tremendous lack of staff and the material did not arrive,” López explained. He has worked for 21 years in downtown San José de Ordizia, but now he will adapt to residents with COVID-19. As López explained, both workers and family members have not received direct information about this change of direction: ‘Residents, relatives and workers have not met to inform them of what they have to do with the residence’. They know that between 5 and 9 October they will have to take the courses: ‘The centre of Ordizia will not be set up until the course trainers are sufficiently prepared’. In the meantime, some workers have been transferred to other centres and others have stayed at home. López has stated that the situation they have lived in Ordizia has left them “psychologically and physically exhausted” and that the conditions have to be improved: ‘The quality of surveillance is minimal’.
Request for family members
Family members have also called for the improvement of working conditions in residences and for the provision of a quality service. They have been fighting for a year and a half. On this occasion they have also made a new request. In a letter addressed to the head of Social Policy, Maite Peña, the Gipuzkoako Senideak association representing the families of the residences has called for the money paid during the strike days to be returned. Seven months ago, the Member informed the relatives that they were going to receive the money: “We remind you that approximately seven months ago, on behalf of the foral department to which you represent and direct, you publicly pledged to return the amounts unduly charged in the residential sector strike as part of collective bargaining.” The family association adds that the return promise that has been received has been a “marketing strategy”.
On the other hand, the association has asked the Provincial Council of Gipuzkoa to “once and for all achieve a consensual and effective solution”: “We ask that the Provincial Council intervene and sit at a table with all the parties involved”, they have concluded. Because since 2012 there have been no collective agreements in nursing homes: "The negotiating table is broken once again, because the employers' last proposal made the unions stand up." They have denounced that the conflict continues and underlined that the most affected are the residents, who have denied that they have existed. It is the most affected group in the pandemic. They have called for the need to put care at the center, and for this they have called for the collaboration of society: ‘We have to put this sector in value, as important as production to maintain life’. They have called on the whole of society and ‘especially women’ to take care of the feminized sector and because most residents are women.
Therefore, the demonstration on 6 October in Donostia-San Sebastián will demand decent working conditions, a quality service and a commitment to the collective agreement: “A society with a strong public sector is more democratic and the good and equality of all and all are fundamental objectives,” they said.