Public sector federations mobilise against regional government attacks
25 January 2012
While the national government has announced another year of pay freezes across the public sector, regional governments are planning their own range of cuts to pay and conditions and services. Public sector unions are planning a series of demonstrations and strikes in response to these attacks. In Valencia trade unions are planning legal action as well as demonstrations against the regional government’s planned savings of more than €1 billion. A series of meetings and mobilisations began on 13 January and will continue with three demonstrations planned for 26 January and a region-wide protest to follow in February. In the Basque region trade unions have tried to negotiate but the government is insistent on imposing a range of measures that will reduce rights to partial and early retirement. Unions there will demonstrate on 24 January. In Castilla –La Mancha unions have united in a campaign agains the cuts that will include local mobilisations around the time of the budget vote, a demonstration in Toledo on 11 February and a strike on 29 February. However, job cuts in the regional government’s Geacam environmental services company, have lead unions there to organise strike action on 25 January. They are concerned that the job cuts are a first step towards possible privatisation of the company.
Read more on Valencia at > FSC-CCOO (ES)
And more on the Basque at > FSC-CCOO (ES)
And on Castilla-La Mancha at > FSC-CCOO (ES)
And on Geacam at > FSC-CCOO (ES)
Pay freeze in 2012 means 13% loss of purchasing power
6 January 2012
The FSC-CCOO and FSP-UGT public service federations have criticised the centre-right government for imposing a further pay freeze in the public sector in 2012. The previous socialist government had imposed an average 5% cut in 2010 followed by a pay freeze in 2011. Unions estimate that the combined effect of these measures is that public sector workers will have seen the purchasing power of their salaries fall by 13% in real terms over three years. They have also criticised the freeze on recruitment, particularly at a time of such high unemployment and above all among younger people.
Read more at > FSC-CCOO (ES)
And at > FSP-UGT (ES)
Trade unions organize anti-austerity demonstrations
21 December 2011
National and regional trade union federations have come together to protest against cuts to services and public sector jobs at regional level. Thousands took part in a demonstration in Barcelona where the regional government is planning cuts to pay and changes to working conditions. A major protest in Pamplona highlighted the threat to public services and where 1130 jobs have already been cut or are being cut with more under threat.
Read more at > FSC-CCOO (ES)
And at > FSP-UGT (ES)
Regions plan further cuts
9 December 2011
The FSC-CCOO services federation has attacked the planned cuts announced by the Catalonian regional government on 30 November, saying that the cuts to pay, employment and working conditions will mean undoing 30 years of progress. Cuts in staff could mean the termination of contracts of temporary workers who make up 25%-30% of all regional government employees. The union also points out that this means an attack on collective bargaining and the collective agreements that have been signed in recent years. Meanwhile in Castilla La Mancha the regional government plans to increase weekly working hours for its 70,000 public sector employees from 35 to 37.5 while reducing pay by 3%.
Read more at > FSC-CCOO (ES)
And at > El Mundo (ES)
Union organizes protests over pay and conditions in Public Employment Service
11 November 2011
The FSP-UGT public services federation organized protest action starting on 26 October over the deterioration of pay and conditions in the Public Employment Services. The union says that inadequate staffing has lead to some employees taking work home to try to maintain the level of service. The federation says that there also problems in relation to pay levels and other working conditions, problems which were made more challenging following the merger with the Fogasa wage guarantee fund.
Read more at > FSP-UGT (ES)
Regional government tears up agreement on union full timers
14 September 2011
The regional government of Valencia has told the CCOO confederation that it will no longer honour an agreement to give trade union representatives full time off to carry out their duties. This will affect 197 trade union officials across the public services in the region – education, health, administration and justice. The regional authority claims this is a necessary cost cutting measure while the CCOO argues that this is a direct attack on the trade union, aimed at undermining its ability to represent and negotiate for its members. A similar proposal will be put to the regional council for the Balearic Islands. The regional authority claims that its actions are within the law as the main legislation regulating relations with trade unions allows such measures in extreme economic circumstances.
Read more at > FSC-CCOO (ES)
And at > Publico website (ES)
Unions criticize government’s budget deficit proposals
25 August 2011
The main trade unions have attacked the government for proposing a change in the constitution that would restrict any government’s ability to run a budget deficit of more than 4% of GDP. The UGT argues that this is a mistaken priority and that the government should focus on the need to create jobs and respond to the proposals drawn up by both the UGT and CCOO confederations. The FSC-CCOO opposes the measure highlighting in particular the risk of the government looking for more outsourcing and flexibility in order to stick within the spending limit with serious implications for public sector workers’ pay and employment conditions.
Read more at > FSC-CCOO (ES)
And at > FSP-UGT (ES)
Unions respond to business leader’s attack on civil servants
25 July 2011
Juan Rosell, head of the CEOE employers’ organisation, has angered unions with his statements about civil servants, describing them as arrogant and unreliable. The unions have responded by referring to the fact that civil servants have played an important role in response to the crisis, pointing out that not only were they not responsible for the crisis but they didn’t benefit from the boom years that lead to the bust. While inflation averaged 4%, civil servants’ pay was increasing by an average of 2% over a period of more than 10 years. And following the slump civil servants have had a 5% pay cut and pay freeze imposed upon them.
Read more at > FSC-CCOO (ES)
And at > FSP-UGT (ES)
And at > USO (ES)
Federations respond to increase in gender pay gap
25 July 2011
Both the CCOO and UGT trade union organisations are calling for increased action to deal with gender inequality at work and the latest data that show an increase in the gender pay gap in Spain. The statistics reveal how women make up just over 64% of all low-paid workers and predominate in low-paying sectors like health and social services where they make up 69% of the workforce. The CCOO want to see action to deal with discrimination in terms of job classification, recruitment, promotion and training. The UGT emphasizes the importance of tackling gender inequality through collective bargaining and ensuring that there is an increase in the number of women negotiators.
Read more at > FSC-CCOO (ES)
And at > FSP-UGT
Unions petition campaign success
22 June 2011
The UGT and CCOO trade union confederations continue their campaign against the public sector pay cuts and labour law reforms. The unions have successfully collected over a million signatures in support of a popular legal initiative to challenge the labour law reforms. The unions point out that the reforms including changes to collective bargaining have neither calmed the financial markets nor done anything to prevent the increase in unemployment. The unions have also been pursuing legal action in the courts to get the public sector pay cuts reversed but the latest stage of this process has not been successful with the Constitutional Tribunal ruling that the pay cuts are not unconstitutional.
Read more at > FSC-CCOO (ES)
And at >FSP-UGT (ES)
And on the court decision at > FSP-UGT (ES)
Also on the court decision at > FSC-CCOO (ES)
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