CCOO and UGT warn the CEOE that "time is shortening" to reach an agreement on agreements

MADRID, 1 May. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The general secretary of the CCOO, Unai Sordo, and that of the UGT, Pepe Álvarez, have warned this Monday, May 1, the Spanish Confederation of Business Organizations (CEOE) that "time is shortening" to reach an Agreement for the Employment and Collective Bargaining.

Sordo has asked the employers to choose "between a negotiation with increases (salaries)" or the unions will organize in autumn "days that will take the form of a strike in all those sectors whose collective agreements are blocked."

From the UGT, Álvarez has reminded the employers that in 2022 there were conflicts with "positive results" for the workers, and has indicated that the union organizations will follow the same path in 2023 to obtain salary increases.

"The employers have to be aware that either we are capable of reaching an agreement in a short time or the conflict will be for all the sectors that have open agreements," said the general secretary of the UGT at a press conference on May 1.

The CCOO and UGT warnings to CEOE are included within their motto for this May 1, 'Raise wages, lower prices, distribute benefits'.

Both Sordo and Álvarez have agreed that this May 1 "is very important" for the workers, because it is part of an electoral cycle, which is going to be a "turning point."

In this context, the general secretaries have taken stock of this legislature, in which the application of union proposals has been observed with "success", as Sordo has pointed out.

"It is being shown that inequality is ineffective, it is not only unfair but that it is ineffective," stressed the CCOO leader.

For his part, Álvarez has appealed to the "vindictive" nature of this day, and recalled that "it has to serve to consolidate the very important achievements" of this legislature, such as the labor reform or the pension reform.

"Today we must claim and demand that the political organizations that attend these elections not fool us, that they talk about the things that they are going to have to decide," he remarked.

Likewise, the general secretary of the UGT has recommended that the self-employed and small and medium-sized businesses "not follow the instructions of some of their representations", which "are part of that chain of exploitation", alluding to the organizations of the self-employed and SMEs within the CEOE.

The general secretaries of the unions in Madrid, Paloma López, from CCOO, and Marina Prieto, from UGT, have also intervened in this press conference.

Both have criticized the policies of the Community of Madrid and have called on citizens to change them in the next elections.

"It cannot be the Community that has the highest rates of wealth that has the most inequality. It is not possible that the Community that generates the greatest wealth does not have policies to distribute that wealth," López questioned.

Prieto, from the UGT, has denounced that the policies of the Community of Madrid "go against the social majority" and has advocated for measures that defend "social dialogue and the protection of the most vulnerable, with progressive taxation."