The trade unions have unanimously denounced that the negotiation of metal in Álava has been blocked for four years, without any progress, since the employers have no desire to negotiate.

In this situation, ELA, CC.OO. and LAB reached an agreement in December 2021 to boost negotiations and trade union actions for a Collective Agreement worthy of the Metal of Álava, which was later joined by USO–ESK-CGT. After three months and four meetings, they are still awaiting the response of the employers, who will respond to the current situation. Meanwhile, they explained that in the sector “problems and precariousness are accumulating”: “wages that cannot cope with the increase in life, very high working hours and high flexibility, recruitment fraud, high temporality and ETT, upward subcontracting, discrimination against women in a very masculinized sector, adaptation of many accidents at work to current circumstances…”, they have listed.

Thus, the trade unions have convened three days of strike for next May, on 18, 24 and 26. It is expected that the SE-employer will move and content will be obtained that will respond to the problems of the sector.

The Joint Trade Union Platform has among its demands the following: Salary increases on the CPI, with a minimum wage of EUR 1,400 in 14 pages, reduction of working hours, subrogation for subcontractors, anti-fraud measures in recruitment, limitation of temporality and flexibility, equality measures, occupational health guarantee measures, improvement of permits and guarantees for the implementation of the convention.