The Basque union majority will ask political formations to repeal “completely” the labor reforms

The nationalist unions ELA and LAB will hold a round of contacts with the PNV, EH Bildu and Podemos Ahal Dugu to ask them to “commit to fully repeal the labor reforms.”

These union centrals, together with Steilas, ESK, Hiru and Etxalde, have called demonstrations in the capitals of Hegoalde on January 30 in protest at the labor reform agreed between the PSOE Government and United We Can, the CCOO and UGT unions, and the CEOE, as well as in all work centers on February 2, the day before its supposed validation in the Congress of Deputies.

In a statement, the Basque union majority have criticized “severely the agreement reached at the Social Dialogue Table in Madrid because it does not annul the harmful measures imposed on workers with previous labor reforms.”

“The previous reforms gave the employers total unilaterality to carry out the dismissals in order to impose precariousness, flexibility and mobility, something that the modifications that have now been agreed in Madrid do not neutralize,” they have warned.

In his opinion, with this agreement “the opportunity to correct other serious situations is lost”, such as “subcontracting, temporary employment or the situation of domestic workers”. In this sense, they have pointed out that, among the points “not modified and modified, there are two urgent ones: the dismissals and the nationalization”.

ELA, LAB, ESK, Steilas, Hiru and Etxalde have denounced that “nationalization is used to extend precariousness and supposes not respecting the Basque framework”. “We want to challenge the governments and political parties so that, starting with these two issues, they take steps to fully repeal the previous labor reforms”, they have indicated.

On behalf of these six unions, ELA and LAB will meet in Bilbao with EH Bildu next Friday at 11:30 a.m. and with him PNV on Monday, January 31 at 10:30 a.m.. They will also hold a meeting with representatives of Podemos Euskadi, although the date has not yet been specified.

UGT asks to approve labor reform

For his part, the general secretary of the UGT, Pepe Alvarez, has called on the parties to validate the decree on the labor reform agreed in the social dialogue on the 3rd in Congress and to negotiate on the sidelines and in parallel with the Spanish Government demands not included in the pact.

At a press conference in Bilbao, Álvarez defended the content, a “historic” agreement, he said, which will lead “in a short time” to a “drastic” reduction in temporary contracts: “I challenge someone -he emphasized- to put objections in relation to what was agreed”.