On 15 November, in Vitoria-Gasteiz, the workers concentrated in front of the Basque Government. 16 will be at the Bergara police station and 17 at Ondarreta.

Why did they strike?

The previous convention extended until 2020. We succeeded after nine months of strike. In 2023, we had no increase and began to negotiate with Garbialdi. The Basque Government’s Department of Security is preparing a new concession and we want the agreement to be signed, otherwise we will not take account of our working conditions. We meet again the other day.

The company has not offered us anything for 2023, and for 2024 and 2025 it only proposes the rise of the CPI. We cannot leave it that way. I have told you about the CPI problem, but we have another problem: we have an 8% wage gap with regard to men working the same way, with street cleaners. We have to put an end to that, and there we are, we cannot move forward.

They have had to do with the Basque Government.

We told him he was going to strike because we couldn't negotiate with the company. To our surprise, because we were never called in the previous strike, this time we were asked for a meeting. We were told that, given the rise in the CPI, perhaps the company would work fairly and would put an additional EUR 400,000 for the new concession. We were told that in order to start negotiating with the company as soon as we left the meeting, with that money we had to spend for the climb and for more of the CPI. Even knowing this, the company has not made us a better offer.

In the 2018 strike, when we talked, the gender gap was highlighted a lot. The wage gap with regard to road cleaners was 13 per cent. They now have 8%. Have women made progress in working conditions and in the recognition of women's work?

If before I saw that there were cracks, now I see it clearer. We do the same and it is very clear that we have very different salaries. It is no bad thing that we have managed to increase the CPI, so the gap has fallen to 8%. If we had not achieved the rise, I do not know to what extent we would have a gap. That's why it's so necessary for us to get CPI increments, because otherwise, we're going back down. Cleaning men have yearly increases associated with CPI.

We are cleaning women in very precarious conditions. Our work is not recognized. We compare ourselves to street cleaners, and yet we don't ask for the plus they have to clean the street, we focus on base salary and there's a gap there. And if, besides the base wage, we look at the pluses, there's a huge gap. Let me give you an example: we have a transport plus of EUR 2.58, and the barrels have EUR 4.46. They don't give me cheaper gasoline. Under all conditions, there is a difference, and yet we seem to have to be afraid to compare with street cleaners. No, no. I know you have to work in the rain and in the sun, but you have that plus. We do not ask for that. Notice, we have a plus to clean the cells, we got it in the 2018 strike, very expensive. Well, we have to write to charge it, put the ertzaina that asked for disinfection, how long we've spent cleaning... We are paid according to the time elapsed. Street cleaners with sun, rain, don't have to write, we have to concretize everything. If we don't introduce it, we don't charge it.

He wants to tell me another example.

In the past, men were introduced to car cleaning in police stations. They had them cleaned all day. What has happened now? That women have started cleaning cars. The woman performs half a day of interior cleaning and the other half of car washing. A small plus for women who clean cars. On the contrary, men who already worked in car washing (very few), being in the middle of the day, have a special category: specialist pawn. They earn more than us. We have a cleaning plus and they have a better category than ours. Such things have always been done in this society and have been well seen. Until 2018, women didn't realize that cleaning a cell deserved a plus. The cleaning cars did not fight either, but from the beginning they were given the uniqueness. Men always get a little bit of pay, because there's a mentality that they have to take home, and ours is helpful.

He says they have to get things done with difficulty. The other day they went on strike for nine months.

A nine-month strike marks and especially on women. It's hard for us to get out into the street, face it, leave the job and strike it, it makes us so hard. We did. Now we'll come back, but don't think it's easy. Women cost us a lot. It is also hard for me to do what I am doing now [dialogue], but if I do not do it there we will be shut down, nobody sees us.

Before I was afraid to say that I wanted to equate street cleaners, society didn’t accept it either, “how are you going to compare your work with that of the cleaning street?” I received a lot. I now see in my environment that a step has been taken, including among the workers, but I will not say that all the workers have that attitude.

What do you expect for these days of strike?

It was very hard for us to see before, to see if we did so these days, and the Basque Government is also squeezing the company. The government has done the easiest and it is fine, it has put money, but it tells you to negotiate with the company, but it is the one that hires. You have said so many times that you are in favour of equality, why do you not ask in the concessions that the wage gap be wiped out?

The issue of the wage gap has to put all women in the head and fight it. We got a few improvements, and OK, but we all deserve it, also the women who are cleaning the portals. I believe that what we have also achieved is for them.