Call for the third public sector strike in Araba, Bizkaia and Gipuzkoa to denounce the "lack of political will"
- Thirdly, in a few months, public sector workers will go on strike to denounce the "lack of political will" to negotiate working conditions. The trade unions ELA, LAB, CCOO, Steilas and ESK have called for unemployment by 12 March. This time the Satse union has not joined the call.
Public employees are fighting against precariousness and loss of purchasing power in the public sector of Araba, Bizkaia and Gipuzkoa, and on 12 March the third strike will be held convened by the unions ELA, LAB, CCOO, Steilas and ESK, which represent 80% of the public workforce of the CAV. The health sector union Satse has not supported the call.
The calls have explained that neither the Foreign Ministers nor the Basque Government have demonstrated their "political will" to negotiate working conditions, and they have pointed out precisely that their demands are issues in this regard, such as "deciding here on salaries and employment".
"In order to get the Madrid vetoes annulled", trade unions call on public employees to participate "massively" in the strike
That is why, in order to "obtain the annulment of the Madrid vetoes", the unions have asked the workers to participate "massively" in the strike to make public the call at Tuesday's hearing.
They denounce that temporality is higher than ever in the Basque public sector, namely 44%, and that in the last two years the loss of purchasing power has been 8%.
Several demands have thus been put on the table: wage increase of 10%; closure of the door to privatizations; creation and consolidation of public employment; relief of workloads; implementation of feminist policies and agreements on "real and effective" equality plans; euskaldunization of the administration; and orientation towards reducing the working week to 32 hours.
Basque Government: "There's no reason."
For its part, the Basque Government states that it does not see "reason" for calling a strike. Public Governance Counsellor Olatz Garamendi noted that at the last sectoral table they proposed "improvements" to "start negotiating", but that unions did not accept them.
Garamendi also announced some information and decisions at the press conference following the Governing Council: Remuneration of public employees of the C.A.P.V. by 2023 will be increased retroactively by 0.5%. It adds that the Administration is in "moments prior to the award of over 1,600 public jobs".
November 19 is World Bathing Day. Even today, in the twenty-first century, many workers here in the Basque Country do not have the right to use the toilet in their working days. Many transport workers are an example of this.
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