UGT asks Iveco to sit down to negotiate a decent agreement, “or the mobilizations will go into crescendo” and CCOO warns of “salary or conflict”
The second vice president of the Government and Minister of Labor, Yolanda Díaz, has supported the workers’ strike that began last Friday by the Iveco works council in Madrid and has considered that the 1% salary increase, proposed by the company, is “an indecency in our country,” since “we are experiencing an unprecedented inflation crisis.”
“It is unacceptable that a company of the importance of Iveco is offering the workers of this company a mere 1%,” said the vice president. Thus, Díaz has shown “her full support” and conviction to the workers that “you are going to win this strike.”
The Minister of Labor, accompanied by the Secretary of State for Employment, Joaquín Pérez Rey, has argued: “I know very well what you represent and what you are demanding”, such as the time of work and life, which she has described as “one of the most important elements of struggle in a long time.
“It means not being available to the employer. We have the right to know when we are going to work, how long we are going to work and we also have the right to disconnect from days that are sometimes impossible,” he claimed. “It is not possible to work on demand in the country we are in today.” Thus, Díaz has said that “there is no democracy without union strength.”
UGT ASKS TO NEGOTIATE THE AGREEMENT OR THE IRAN MOBILIZATIONS “IN CRESCENDO”
For his part, the general secretary of UGT Fica, Mariano Hoya, has supported the Iveco Madrid workers in the new day of strike and has asked the company “to sit down to negotiate and agree on an agreement”, which will be in the same terms in which they are agreeing agreements “with other large companies in our country.”
For this reason, he has considered that “it is time” for the company to reflect and sit down to negotiate “from loyalty and commitment”, as well as to reflect on the need for workers to “recover purchasing power”, since If not, “the mobilizations will go to a crescendo.” Furthermore, he has warned the company that the success of the strike days “is being absolute.”
Thus, Hoya has regretted that the company has unilaterally broken the climate of dialogue and understanding that had been characterizing labor relations at Iveco, and has adopted “a position of intransigence” that has led Iveco workers, , to hold a few days of strike “with 100% follow-up.”
In the company of the general secretary of UGT FICA Madrid, Juan Antonio Lorido, and the president of the Business Committee, Sergio Gómez, Hoya has highlighted the record profits obtained by the Group, close to 600 million euros in the last three years , while its workers have lost “around 5 points of purchasing power in the last four years.”
Gómez, for his part, pointed out that the works council “wants” Iveco to sit down to negotiate and that they are willing to talk. “But what we are not willing to do is sit back and wait for Iveco to want to sit down and negotiate,” he said.
“We workers have the tool of mobilization, and that is what we are doing today, with 100% monitoring of the entire workforce, who want to go out and demand better rights and better salaries, because we are not going to to give in until the company sits down and offers us a decent platform that can be agreed upon,” Gómez added.
“IF THEY WANTED A PULSE, THERE’S PEOPLE’S RESPONSE,” CCOO SAYS
For his part, the general secretary of the Workers’ Commissions (CCOO) at Iveco, Rafael Regalado, has assured that if the company “wanted to take our pulse, there is the people’s response”, while pointing out that any negotiation agreement The agreement must include a “decent salary increase”, as well as modifying “the current unfair flexibility measures”.
CCOO has indicated in a statement that it expects “a massive follow-up” for the afternoon shift strikes, while justifying the strike due to “the lukewarm position” of the company in the negotiation of the agreement. “The management withdrawnly ignores the needs of the staff and barely changes its position,” the union organization has assured.
For her part, the general secretary of the CCOO of Industry, Garbiñe Espejo, has stressed that the union’s strategy in all its negotiations is “salary or conflict.” “Given that Iveco chose to test the capacity of a workforce that has demonstrated patience, strength and perseverance, it must now choose to return to the negotiating table and listen to the plant workers,” she noted.
