In Bizkaia, in nursing homes, 5,000 workers work, mostly women. After 68 days of strike for almost two years, they have signed an agreement between 2021 and 2025. ELA and UGT sign the agreement. The first has a representation of 63% and UGT has the second largest representation. In total, they have achieved a salary increase of 23.22%, which will be collected from 2025. It's 340 euros more a month than it is now. As of 2025, therefore, the managers of Bizkaia will have a salary of EUR 1,800 compared to the current 1,460.

An annual working day of 1,592 hours is established. Considering the breaks of 20 minutes a day, the number of hours is 1,520. The state average is 1,772 hours. The workers in Bizkaia will receive EUR 15.83 per hour, with a state average of EUR 9.16.

According to the convention, 85% of workers in the sector will be fixed and replacements will be made from day one.

Dominican pluses will increase, as well as increases by seniority. The housing management companies undertake to promote equality and Basque plans.

LAB considers that the agreement does not cover the general needs of the sector

The union congratulates the workers who have struck the “firmness and strength” shown. However, he considers that the agreement signed by ELA and UGT does not include the main demands of LAB and the reality of nursing homes will remain the same. Among other issues, no progress has been made in the care of workers to 25 average residents per head of state, the demands of family associations and the pensioners' movement to ensure decent care for residents have not been met, occupational health measures have not been received, nothing has been received about complementary ITs and no mention has been made of pre-retirement.

For the union, the agreement closes the door to the debate on the public surveillance system.

Women on strike

The managers of the Biscay residences know what a strike is. In order to reach the agreement between 2016 and 2020, a 378 day strike was carried out over a year and a half. After a long strike, they signed an agreement (ELA and UGT) and managed to improve working conditions. The result was satisfactory, but the strike had another echo. In recent decades it was one of the most prestigious strikes in the Basque Country. The strike raised the precariousness of the feminized sectors. The issue of surveillance today at a boiling point came to the centre and criticized how public institutions have allowed surveillance to be privatized.

With the collaboration of ARGIA and the Manu Robles Arangiz Institute, in 2019 they published a book on this strike (Green is the new mass).