It has been four days since the 1st of May came to the parliament. those who unions the majority threatened CEOE with a “warm autumn”until prior agreement is reached for renew salary contract. “It guarantees social peace for the next three years,” said Josep Sánchez Llibre, president of the historic employers’ association Foment del Treball. And the deal, which social agents will formalize this week, promises to defuse the incipient outbursts of protest that started to backfire last year. And what has emerged in the last weeks and months in other neighboring countries of the European Union mass mobilizations in France, Portugal or Germany.
Threatening with “promoting the streets”, UGT general secretary Pepe Álvarez said, Salary increase of at least 10% by 2025. After the first failed attempt in 2022, social agents have managed to decipher their roadmap to raise salaries for the next three years. The centers moderated their demands and businessmen came to terms with what was initially a red line: their salaries are partially CPI. And this agreement, celebrated by both the opposition leader and the Government’s second vice-president, aims to expand the current low rates of worker conflict.
even if he 2022 has become a real ‘annus horribilis’ for salariesThis devaluation of families’ purchasing power did not turn into mass protests. According to the strike and lockout data compiled by the Ministry of Labor, the total 679 strikes, followed by 192,751 workers, about 19% of those called. These are not records of an economic crisis or tensions in the streets, but of a cycle of economic prosperity. To find such low traces in unemployment, it is necessary to go back before the approval of the PP labor reform in 2012.
With the exception of strikes in certain industries that had impact and media coverage, such as the metal strike in Cádiz, the protests were left behind and this was reflected in the number of workdays lost. According to the Labor Party data, a total of 709,099 days of work were stopped; this figure is significantly higher than the figures in 2020 and 2021, when the pandemic was quite pronounced. But less has been lost than in 2019, and price levels are now significantly lower than those penalizing most homes.
Social peace awaits elections
Except for the ‘bipartisanship’ of the CCOO and UGT, the unions will not be co-signers of this social peace, which could lead to conflicts in certain sectors where the most belligerent centers are strong. According to the latest data compiled by Generalitat, 80.3% of trade union delegates elected in Catalonia have a CCOO or UGT card.
In the private sector, wage agreements have been made for months. preliminary agreement in the public sector. The fact that civil servant salaries will increase between 8.5% and 9.5% until 2024, depending on variables such as GDP and inflation, also limits the possibility of protests against salary demands among public employees.
Again, social peace scenario may be disrupted by general elections will happen this year. And so far the majority centers have maintained a good relationship with the coalition government and have managed to publish part of their agenda in the Official State Gazette (BOE). And the possibility of a different government emerging from the polls and repealing or changing the laws of which unions are co-signers could reverse the scenario. The main opposition party, PP, has not yet made a clear statement on whether it will repeal the labor and pension reforms if it wins the polls and forms a government.