"The sector is not professionalized, there is no agreement"

Faced with the worsening situation of the staff of shows and events following the pandemic, on 23 June the workers in the sector created the Teknariok trade union. At the concentration on 8 August in Donostia-San Sebastian, they denounced the precarious situation of the workers and said that they are awaiting answers to the request of the public institutions to set up a negotiating table.

Why do they protest?

For us today it should be a special day, because under normal conditions Aste Nagusia would begin and all of us here would be working. However, the situation is very different and almost all of us are out of work.

How do you see the future?

Most workers are without support. Self-employed technicians, for example, have been prevented from applying for the extension of aid because of the suspension of working time. On the other hand, we do not know when we are going to start working and we are afraid, because we are still in a certain state of alarm. On 30 September we will be exhausted from the subsidies given by the Temporary Employment Regulation Dossiers, and from that point on we do not know what is going to happen to us.

Are there staff in a different situation?

Yes, some are unemployed, but because some people worked on temporary contracts, many of them have run out of help, because people who work regularly have not been taken into account in times of a pandemic. Many of the workers are unpaid or unpaid and others only receive EUR 400 or 600, which is not a condition for a dignified life.

Protest by union members in Donostia-San Sebastián on 8 August. Photo: Technicians

What do you think is the solution?

We have asked the Basque Government, the Foreign Ministers and the various municipalities, including Donostia, to set up a negotiating table to discuss this situation and to agree on a solution.

What has been the response of the public institutions?

The Basque Government told us that we would use a platform of negotiation that they have on the net, but that it will be paralysed until next September. We cannot, therefore, pass on our demands to the Basque Government properly.

How did you create the industry union?

We are people who do very different jobs: transportation; sound technicians, video and lighting; seamstresses, etc. We see that in 2020 our work sector is not professionalized and that there is a lack of an agreement, which makes the work unstable and precarious; for example, long working hours and periodicity.

After the creation of our trade union and the public actions we have carried out, we have been approached by the trade unions of all time, but it is true that in recent years they have not helped us too much to improve our working conditions, which is why we have created our own trade union.