The main Spanish unions, the General Union of Workers (UGT) and Workers Commissions (CCOO) called on citizens to demonstrate under the slogan “Just do not go out of the economic crisis” affecting Spain since 2008.
The unions emphasized that economic growth data from Spain, which in the first quarter was 0.9%, are not translating into better jobs and reduce inequality but rather the opposite, while unemployment is around 24%.
The central march that took place in Madrid, took place in a festive atmosphere among chants of rejection of neoliberal labor reform that included the dismissal and continuous adjustment policies of the government the right-wing Popular Party (PP) President Mariano Rajoy.
There was no shortage allusions to the latest corruption scandal sweeping the PP, the alleged laundering case in which it is involved former financial vice-president of the PP and former IMF Managing Director Rodrigo Rato, who was frosty banners with the message “There is money to Rato”.
They were also protagonists workers of Coca-Cola, with its red vests demanded his reinstatement and opening Plant Fuenlabrada, after the Spanish Justice annulled his dismissal after a process that lasted two years.
Building on the horizon of the elections, the closing speeches of the event were focused on criticism of the executive, but also on specific claims such as “guaranteed minimum income” for people who have no income, and called to vote in favor of a profound change.
“We clearly need political change, actors, but we need policy changes and will not change if the Spanish society is not mobilized demanding the restoration of lost rights, the quality of our social model, education, health, social services, “said Ignacio Fernandez Toxo, leader CC.OO.
“It is true that this not out of the crisis, whatever it says the prime minister, who claims that Spain will be the world champion of growth. The expectation is that in 2018 we will have an unemployment rate (unemployment) 15 percent, “continued Toxo.
” All we can offer is a statistic and also as rickety reduction? ” he asked, while he stressed that “the crisis we’re going out when people remember the standards of employment, education, health and social services recovers.”
“We have seven years of effects demolition of the policy developed in the European Union and imposed on Spain, and led this country to the prolonged crisis in recent history. And do you have the nerve to say that his policies are taking the crisis? He added the union leader.
“We have to say loud and clear that there is no alternative to the neoliberal trend sweeping democratic Europe,” he said.
“The Greek debt is unpayable , like the Spanish. ” And Greece, Spain and Portugal, all the peoples of Europe other rulers deserve another destination, “said Toxo, who also noted the need for Spanish wages recover their purchasing power.
In line Candido Mendez, leader of UGT, I criticized the optimism Rajoy when he speaks of the economic recovery in Spain. What jobs speech the government? They are “volatile jobs, of poor quality, which do not generate quotes and with negligible wages,” he said .
“We have to demand a change in depth. This has to be the year of change, “said Mendez, who claim the right to” decent employment which in turn generate more rights. “
” We need a change in the production model. This should it be the year of big changes for the dignity of work, “he said.
Barcelona was one of the epicenters of the mobilization of May 1. There, the unions amounted participation 60,000 people, while the local police reduced the number to 10,000.
With the theme “Insecurity is holding. Work and living wages. More social protection “, the protesters also marched with the mind set in the municipal elections of May 24 claiming the end of the adjustment and a change in the neoliberal policies.
The leader of UGT in Catalonia, Josep Maria Álvareza stressed that the march would serve to “demand political change” and that the new government that emerges from the elections “repeal the labor reform”.
Apart from the big unions also mobilized the General Confederation of Labour (CGT) and the anarcho-syndicalist CNT and other social platforms.
The CGT did with the slogan “Uniting struggles, to the general strike” and demanding “bread, work, shelter and dignity.”
The leader izquiedista Podemos party, Pablo Iglesias, attended a rally held outside the headquarters of Telefónica in support of technical subcontracted by the company.
“Telefonica is an example of this type of business management curtails the rights of workers, however, admits in their directorships people of dubious reputation as Rodrigo Rato, Inaki Urdangarin or Eduardo Zaplana “he said.
While workers and unemployed Spaniards took the streets, Rajoy said that” many people “who” still do not have jobs, “but” things are better. He did so by awarding the Gold Medal for Merit in Work to Rafael Nadal, considered one of the best athletes in history.
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