The capitals of Hego Euskal Herria have mobilized on the occasion of the International Day for Occupational Safety and Health, convened by the Basque trade union majority. The workers left the street under the motto "this system sickens us and kills us"; in Vitoria-Gasteiz they left on Tuesday and in the rest of the capitals on Wednesday.

In a joint statement, written by ELA, LAB, ESK, Steilas, EHNE, Hiru and CGT in Navarra, they stressed that "it is a day to pay tribute to all people who have lost their health and died in their jobs as a result of job insecurity".

The unions have denounced the error in the health and life conditions of workers in the pandemic situation and have claimed that it is time to radically change health policies at work: "It is essential to repeal labour reforms, to restore skills that have been suppressed, to break down ineffective social dialogue policies and to strengthen the public resources allocated to the monitoring of safety conditions in the workplace."

Public institutions have described the management carried out by the pandemic as "bad". "The strategy to live with the virus was designed according to the employers and it was decided to resume and maintain the economic activity that is not essential despite the advance of diseases and the increase in pollution and deaths." The number of deaths from contagion in work services is still unknown, but it has recently been known that more than 70% of outbreaks in CVA between October 2020 and January 2021 have occurred in the workplace.

“Zero COVID-19 Strategy”

They have therefore called for the Zero COVID-19 strategy, which requires the means for inspection to be equivalent to the EU average and for public administrations to be "once and for all the labour and health authority" over the established production system.