La Vitoria workers sign an agreement after improvements
- The pre-agreement reached last week by the representatives of ELA and ESK was ratified in the workers' assembly at noon on Tuesday. The agreement includes wage increases and other improvements related to the CPI. At the end of 2023 and the beginning of 2024, workers made arrests and demonstrations. A trial will be held on Wednesday requesting the annulment of a dismissal.
“In the demonstrations that lasted a week and after the strikes organized in them, the pre-agreement reached with the management last week was approved today at noon at the workers’ assembly,” explains Esk and the press release sent by the ELA unions. 70 workers from La Vitoriana have signed the agreement for the period 2019-2025 (it does not affect the workers of dozens of bakeries formally belonging to another company).
Significant progress
“[Convention] collects wage increases that guarantee purchasing power, with increases in CPI around 13% and improvements in the gains,” the unions explain. Measures such as the “compensatory allowance” of EUR 600 for all workers, the salary increase of EUR 3,000 for those of lower category or improvements in certain transitional permits or impediments have also been incorporated.
The workers have not achieved all the improvements they advocated, as the unions acknowledged, but have appreciated: “These are important advances in combating precariousness.”
Wednesday against a dismissal trial
Among the unresolved issues is the situation of workers dismissed by the company during the process of organization and mobilization. “He fired a worker the day after participating in the workers’ assembly and this week there has been a new dismissal. It’s unacceptable, we’re looking to go to court,” said ESK trade union representative Itsaso Zabaleta in an interview with ARGIA. In fact, the trade unions announced in the same note that a trial will be held on Wednesday to “request the annulment of a dismissal in August 2023”.
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