It was the first of the two days of strike called by ELA, LAB, CCOO, SATSE, ESK and Steilas. All public employees were called: 152,000 employees of the Basque Government, Deputies, Municipalities and the Spanish State. Trade unions have pointed out that the mobilisations have been “very broad” and are “at ease” with the “workers’ response to the stoppages.” However, the data provided by the Basque Government do not coincide with the trade unions, and the Director of Labour Relations of the Basque Government, Jon Agirre, stressed that the continuation of the strike was “modest”.

To strengthen public services, agree here on pay and employment! Thousands of workers have come to the streets under the slogan “here”, and have called for wages and working conditions to be agreed. According to the trade unions, more than 30,000 workers participated in the mobilisations called: 10,000 in San Sebastian, 6,000 in Vitoria and over 15,000 in Bilbao. In the streets of the capitals, shouts have been heard such as “Strengthening public services”, “Working here, deciding here” and “Fighting is the only way”.

Specific requirements

Trade unions also raise other demands: In the last decade, the Government of Spain has caused the loss of purchasing power of public employees of 20%, the recovery of this decision-making capacity and the increase in wages of 10%; the reduction of the temporality rate in public sector jobs from 49% today to 8%; the end of the trend towards privatization of public services and the euskaldunization of the sector, among others.

The Lehendakari of the Basque Government, Iñigo Urkullu, has responded to union centres that, in addition to the limited resources, “comply with all these demands” is not in the hands of the “government”. Agirre asks them to put aside the “maximalist positions” and “continue to negotiate” in the General Committee and in the sectoral tables and forums,

Data monitoring

The unions reaffirm that the participation of the strike has been “successful” in most sectors. Regarding the media and public transport, they say that the strike has been “almost absolute” and in the rest of the sectors, whether educational, municipal and foral, Osakidetza, General Administration and Justice Administration has had “broad monitoring”.

However, the Basque Government has pointed out that participation in the strike has been “modest”, providing concrete data from different sectors: General Administration 12.03%; Education 41.4%; Osakidetza 5.9% and Security 3.42%.

The majority of trade unions are calling for a strike for public sector workers on 19 December.