On the afternoon of February 18, on Buenos Aires street in Bilbao, opposite the Movistar store. Correscals’ career begins. Move along the stairs, in Euskera inclined. The name has taken all meaning when Movistar’s contract and subcontractor staff have taken in their hands long wooden stairs and have placed on both sides of the road, creating an imaginary path for the first meters of the race. And there came Correscals, Korrika Precaria, with a witness ahead as the Korrika. But this time it's a blue phone. Inside it has a message, as is usually in favor of the Basque Country; however, the issue is not the language, but the dignity of the workers. From the people, understand.

“The staircase is our main working instrument and we have made it a symbol of our struggle,” he told us a few days ago, in a much quieter environment, the Barcelonan Aitzol Ruiz de Azua. Ruiz de Azua is a worker of the contract Ecotronic, which operates for Movistar. He is also a member of the Blue Tide, i.e. the Movistar strike committee.

Against the All-Powerful Telefónica

In March 2015, the starting point for this story was the workers’ strike for Telefónica’s trademark. First in Madrid, shortly thereafter throughout the Spanish State. The strike was stronger in Barcelona, as “after years of work we had a strong union fabric”. Movistar’s hiring, subcontracting and “false self-employed” followed the strike for two and a half months. “At first we thought it was going to be a strike like any other,” says Ruiz de Azua, “that is, without working we would be harming the company, but we realized that this was not useful to deal with Telefónica; Telefónica is a multinational with great profits, it is very difficult to fight it.”

The company does not care to lose the money and leave customers without supply, as Ruiz de Azua explained. “The image was their only concern.” At first, this image was not particularly weakened, as the strikers had a gap in the media. The occupation of the main Movistar store in Barcelona, where the destination of Correscal was installed, managed to change the situation. At the same time, there were significant demonstrations elsewhere, particularly in Bilbao. With these actions they managed to push the company to negotiate, but the result was not as good as desired, at least in Catalonia – the strikers of the Basque Country got a better deal – and that is why many went on strike. At the end of the occupation of the Barcelona store they were aware of the consequences: redundant workers, black lists…

The popular movement accompanies us.

This struggle led to a wave of solidarity. The strike was prolonged and a resistance fund was created for workers to maintain it, through a selfless loan granted by the ethical financial service Coop57. In total, 67,200 euros were received in Catalonia. In the Basque Country, another resistance fund amounting to EUR 7,000 was created. Flexible deadlines were given to return these amounts to the strikers, three or four years old, but they did not want to wait so long, as “what we had sown would cool”, according to Ruiz de Azua. The situation they wanted to take advantage of to start building a new project was the Correscals germ.

How has the Blue Tide struggle been turned into a project that brings together dozens of groups and hundreds of people in such a short time? One of the keys has been given to us by the technical coordinator of Correscal, Ernest Gutiérrez: “When they occupied the store in Barcelona they did not enter by themselves.” Movistar’s strike since its inception had many supports, which is evident: in some way, it managed to revive some old struggles that were dormant, according to Gutiérrez. “It was an echo of the M-15, but above all it reminded us of the fight against the globalization of the year 2000.”

Fund to sustain future struggles

For justified reasons, the Blue Tide generated great empathy, enabling it to guarantee the loan granted by Coop57 to more than 200 people in various groups. The Correscals initiative comes from the collaboration of all of them. “The month of September came and we thought: if we have built all of this together, we have also come together to come back,” says Gutiérrez. But they wanted to do something different, beyond returning a certain amount. “Instead of creating a resistance box, why not a kind of mutualization?” they asked.

More specifically, they decided to set up a support fund for those in a situation of division similar to that of Movistar. “It’s not the same thing that factory workers negotiate with a single employer, or that these workers are dispersed in hiring, subcontracting and subcontracting,” said Correscal’s coordinator, “under these conditions it’s much more difficult to strike.” The aim of the initiative is, in short, to sow the first seed of the support fund for future struggles, once the debt of the Blue Tide resistance fund has been paid. “Let no one stop making an indefinite strike for lack of time.”

The crowfunding was launched with the dual objective of obtaining the money needed for the return of the resistance boxes mentioned, the organization of the Correscals career and the financing of the documentary that will premiere in spring, some 94,000 euros, as well as the creation of the embryo of this cooperative fund. For the second objective, the challenge has been to raise a total of EUR 40,000. That means that Correscals wants to charge a minimum of EUR 146,000, and all that until mid-March. At the time of drafting these lines, EUR 120,000 is raised, with minimum targets that are largely met, and not far from the creation of the fund. That's the real destination of Correscals.