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Bilbobus workers return to work after almost 80 days of strike

  • At the sitting on Wednesday, the pre-agreement received 332 votes in favour, 186 against, three blank votes and six null votes. The majority of the works council and the company Biobide have overcome the differences in the May pre-agreement and have culminated in the indefinite strike.
Bilbobuseko langileak murrizketen aurkako manifestazioan. Argazkia: Gedar

Bilbobus workers have ended the indefinite strike launched on 9 April, following the pre-agreement reached last Wednesday, 26 June, between the trade union majority of CCOO, UGT and LSB and the company Biobide, owned by Alsa. At the sitting, 527 workers voted and 332 votes were recorded in favour, 186 against, three blank votes and six null votes. ELA, LAB and ESK have criticised the agreement. The Mobility and Sustainability Councillor, Nora Abete, has shown satisfaction at the end of the strike, stated that it is "very good news" for the bilbaits and thanked for taking steps forward in the negotiations, as, as she said, the strike has lasted "too long". The Convention will be effective from 1 January 2022 to 31 December 2027, according to Deia. The sources consulted ensure that the agreement will be signed in the coming days, according to the same sources.

The pre-agreement of 25 June came after the motion presented by EH Bildu of Bilbao for Thursday’s plenary, in which he asked the City of Bilbao to “take the necessary steps” to assume the direct management of Bilbobus, to “solve the labor conflict and find solutions” that exists since 2021, according to Bilbo Herri Irratia.

According to the pre-agreement, the salary increase for the approximately 600 employees of Bilbobus will be equivalent to that applied in the civil service. By 2022 and 2023, a wage hike equivalent to the wage increase of the civil service plus a 4% increase has been agreed. By 2024, 2025 and 2026 the rise would be applied to the public sector and would represent an increase of 0.7%, 0.6% and 0.5%, respectively, if the CPI exceeded this increase, as reported by EiTB. By 2027 a percentage of 0.5% has been agreed, but in this case it would be a one-off remuneration that cannot be consolidated. In addition, the 62% part-time workers will have a full working day, while the possible ones will cover the 62% gap.

Previously, in May, the same unions had reached a pre-agreement to "disconvene" the strike, although the workers of Bilbobus did not accept it, with 287 votes against and 249 in favour, according to the media Eldiario.es. As a result of the non-acceptance of this pre-agreement, the chairman of the works council, José Fernández de UGT, resigned and was replaced by Ángel Jauregi de ELA. For this pre-agreement, ELA pointed out that the agreement did not contain wage increases based on the CPI of the year and LAB stressed that the link between wages and the CPI "was the way not to impoverish the workers".

ELA and LAB have also criticised the agreement reached on 26 June with the Basque Government. ELA has given several reasons: “It does not guarantee purchasing power, it violates workers’ rights and it does not resolve the conflict in hiring.” The proposal for this new pre-agreement “makes wage increases conditional on the decisions of the Spanish Government on public personnel”, stressed ELA. LAB, for its part, has stated that this agreement has little difference with the previous agreement and that it does not guarantee the recovery of purchasing power or resolve the conflict with contracting.

The agreement does not include certain requests from workers, such as discrepancies in terms of special pay for workers on leave and on public holidays. Martín García, of the ESK trade union, pointed out that “the fatigue of the workers, the stop of the strike and the boycott of the mobilizations of the City Council of Bilbao, the company and the media have been important factors in the approval of the agreement”. This boycott, according to El Salton, has led public transport passengers to "verbal attacks and physical assaults" on drivers who were on the spot.


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