Unions in Aguas Barcelona meet up
The Spanish company Aquas Barcelona has acquired recently Bristol Water in the UK. The UK unions are concerned about the long-term commitments of the company given the many changes they have already seen in the UK. Suez, Veolia, RWE, Enron (Azurix) have withdrawn or reduced their interests in the water sector in the UK. The unions had a fruitful meeting with management and agreed to seek the establishment of a European Works Council.
Background
Aguas Barcelona owns health care clinics in Spain, certification - Applus - in Netherlands, Denmark, Spain, Finland and operations in Latin America. It has been selling engineering and construction interests, as well as with drawing from Latin America to concentrate on water business in Spain and Europe. It is foreseen that this process will continue. Aguas Barcelona operates 25% of the market in Spain Competitors are Saur (Aguas Valencia) and FCC. 50% of the market is in private hands, with several large cities still having a municipal system such as Madrid, Bilbao, Cordoba and Sevilla. While drinking water in Catalonia is mostly private, sewage/ waste water treatment is done by publicly owned/ municipal companies.
Aguas Barcelona is owned by a holding Hisusa (47%) which in turn is owned by Suez and Caixa, 51 and 49% respectively. Another 10-12% is owned by two rich individuals owning textile and construction companies respectively. The rest is floating on the stock exchange. Aguas Barcelona operates concessions with the assets being owned by the public administrations, although it wants to buy the assets of these companies. Aguas Barcelonas employs 17.000.
The national water collective agreement is recent with a low level of starting wages. Workers in Aguas Barcelona have better conditions. Both in the UK and Spain unions are confronted with outsourcing of activities.
EPSU organised a meeting between representatives of the unions concerned, CCOO, UGT for Spain and Unison, GMB for the UK, 20 December 2006, Barcelona.
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