In addition to registering for a community, culture or territorial union, Xabier Gantzarain explains in the book Zuloa that the Basque Country has become an international product. Ours is a people that sells. You can take a lot of subetiquettes, and the most important example is Bilbao. The “Guggenheim effect” has hit Bilbao hard: the old Biscayan capital has long rejected the industrial sector and competes to take the front line of the international showcase. However, the reality is quite different from what is shown to us: Bilbao is a very inhabited city.

Eragin is three years old. They go beyond the usual areas of self-managed spaces and youth movements: the socio-economy. We have been with Gaizka Suárez and talked about the lines of work they have fixed and their problems: “We are campaigning permanently against precariousness, in the logic of the recovery of class consciousness and making apology for the organization.”

The rapid process of deindustrialization has completely transformed the situation in Bilbao and Euskal Herria, all of which has a direct impact on the work environment. Based on this critique of the city model, Eragin seeks to influence the most oppressed labor sectors, facing the atomization of workers. The closure of the Basque, the closure of the Peralteses farmers and the current struggle of La Naval are increasingly rare cases; as the strength of the third sector increases, the forms of work are changing. Eragin wants to be a mediator in those workplaces where workers find it difficult to organize. It is not a slow job, but: companies in the third sector, unlike industrial companies, are made up of a small number of workers. Moreover, the vast majority of the staff have never worked in the field of militancy, which has contributed to further slowing down Eragin’s work. Suárez has stated that insecurity and dependence at work is great and that fear is the "strong point" of recent months.

Over the past year, the Eragin movement has increased considerably. Last year he carried out a work on the distribution company Glovo, and then there have been activities against the dynamics of Dignified Hospitality and betting houses. They denounce that the institutions are dedicated to the youth game and, on the other hand, they have just set up a network of hospitality companies with the publication of the hospitality agreement. Let us look at the three areas mentioned in the successive lines.

The life of false self-employed

There are not a few who pay the quotas of the self-employed and the taxes and work for the multinationals. Suárez is concerned that it is an unregulated world. She believes that the work of the distributor Glovo, who in 2017 has arrived in Bilbao and awakened society, has served to develop some of the awareness of the citizens. On the other hand, in the last month, another company dedicated to the distribution of food has arrived in the city: Uber Eats

With their eye-catching boxes, which are larger than conventional backpacks, Glovo workers move from one side to the other. They often travel by bicycle or by public transport, as the cost of transport has to be paid by the trabajador.Aunque they pay the expenses of the self-employed, they do not have the day to day of the usual self-employed: they can only perform the working
hours that the company entrusts them. The allocation of hours is done through a scoring ranking. Workers are dedicated to competition: they have more and more points and offer more hours of work. This score depends on the work done. Working at weekends and at night, for example, is a supplement to get a higher score.

“To have a living wage you have to work many hours,” says Tintxu, a worker interviewed last year by Eragin. Without fixed holidays or health insurance, they have become dependent workers of the company. The wage may vary depending on the amount of delivery, but Tintxu says that an average of EUR 4 per hour is earned. Let each of you know, paying an autonomous fee of about 300 euros a month, how many hours you have to work to have a dignified life in Euskal Herria.

In recent years, Glovo has facilitated the recruitment of young people, providing them with a cheaper share, which has made it difficult to organise the Eragin workers’ network. Most young people come to work partially, with the intention of earning salaries in a couple of months, especially in summer. This means not wanting to get wet: assimilation and pasotism.

Youth and Foreign Affairs

If it is not the busiest area in the sector, hospitality is one of the busiest. Even more so in areas where tourism plays a key role. Eragin members took their concerns to intervene on the premises, but instead of putting their nose into specific bars or restaurants, they called an open assembly. Above all with the aim of workers sharing their personal experience and realising that the problem is global. From her hand came the dynamics of Hostelería Serio composed by hosteleros.

“We approach them informally by asking them if the minorities established by the Spanish State Hospitality Convention are met,” says Suárez. In most cases they are not met, and many of these figures are far away. Nine competences, both of waiters and cooks, have been drawn to the attention of the Commission and the institutions have been called upon to make the problem public. The streets of Bilbao have been filled with posters denouncing the precariousness.

Suárez has argued that the fact that most foreigners are young or foreign further aggravates the situation, as many foreigners are willing to work more than ten hours because of the need for wages and many work in the short term. This may imply dependence and assimilation of work.

There is another area of work currently under way: academies and private classes. They met for the first time at the end of February, with the aim of creating a network such as the hospitality industry. The teaching of private classes is not often regarded as work, and Suárez has considered that removing the real importance of such classes can be a problem. It is a very feminized space that, beyond the economy, is an issue that affects the social sphere.

Deactivation policies

Beyond working situations, young people are also the victims of institutional policies. Above all, the most precarious young people are the hardest hit, those in despair and hopelessness. For young people who see the dark future and have been lost to continue in the system, they are offered games that generate dependency, with the support of institutions. That is what Eragin denounces.

It is a problem that has always occurred, but the boom it has experienced in recent years has beaten all records from so far: Since 2012, the money that has been spent on betting has increased by 150%. Jon Torner, a journalist from Argia, collected the data in a report in October last year. A recent study by the University of Deusto reveals that one in three young Basques is playing money in the Basque Country. The increase in gambling areas directly affects: In Bilbao there are 43 gambling halls and 11 betting houses.
More than for activation, the betting houses policy is that of deactivation. Suárez has strongly criticized the report on betting houses made by the 360° ETB program: “They approached the issue somely and asked them to act responsibly, they have not analyzed why it is being played, what is behind it and why it has been so booming.” It calls for the substance of the problem.

In the City Hall of Bilbao, Eragin tabled a motion calling for a solution to betting houses. Among other demands, it is requested that these kinds of centers move away from the educational centers and that the advertising of public spaces be withdrawn. As they have explained, it is the responsibility of the institutions, through the laws and by expanding audits, to change the root of the problem, both in betting houses and in small, medium-sized and multinational companies that “exploit workers”. The motion was rejected by the municipal plenary, on the grounds that it was not competent. “It is unacceptable – as Eragin explained – to look the other way and not take concrete action. After the cynical condemnation of the disease of the game, they have responded to our motion with a modest and devoid of content, making the competences an excuse.”

Thus, the members of the movement have taken action and, among others, a dozen people have entered on 1 April at the headquarters of the company RETA in the district of Rekalde, dressed in masks that represented the face of Carlos Sobera – the well-known television presenter stars one of the ads of the betting house 888 Poker. With this action, they wanted to record that although the City Hall does not give “any importance” to the problem, the young people “will not be looking at the land”.

“In Bilbao the hope is very narrow, dark and short,” continues Xabier Gantzarain in the abovementioned novel. It would appear, gloomy, that the goods will come to an end to the people that are sold. Instead of seeing the dark future, Eragin believes that the key is in the recovery of youth.