MADRID, 4 Abr. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The representatives of the Iveco works council, belonging to the UGT FICA, CCOO and CGT unions, have called for three days of strike at the doors of the Madrid factory this Friday, April 5, Saturday, April 6, and a half day in both shifts next Wednesday, April 10, from 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. as a pressure measure.
After a month of waiting, the unions consider that “the platform presented by the company in the negotiation of the collective agreement is an evident lack of respect and contempt for its workers,” as reported this Thursday by UGT FICA in a statement.
Specifically, the business platform has been presented by the management of Iveco at the fourth negotiation meeting of the collective agreement, “after a month of waiting, and is summarized in a cut in rights in each and every one of its points and offering a salary increase of 1% in the years 2024 and 2025, something totally different from the profits obtained in the last 3 years by the group and which amount to almost 600 million euros, a historical record for the company in the midst of the inflationary and global crisis”, the union has detailed.
For this reason, the representatives of the works council, belonging to the unions UGT FICA, CCOO and CGT, called this Wednesday at the general assembly held in both shifts for three days of strike.
The union has also commented that to the loss of purchasing power of the workers in the last period of the 2021-2023 collective agreement due to the rise in inflation and which is estimated at 5.5% less, it is also added , that in a similar negotiation in Italian plants last year, the Italian management agreed with the unions for an 11% increase between 2023 and 2024.
“This contempt for the Spanish factories, which are the benchmarks in quality among their plants around the world and the driving force of the group’s profits in the words of the company’s CEO, together with flexibility measures that have led to numerous judicial conflicts and the disenchantment of its workers in recent years, have led this workforce to propose the need to carry out a strike calendar after more than 25 years without carrying out any in the field of collective bargaining,” he commented.
In this context, the staff has endorsed in the general assembly held this Wednesday these three days of stoppage as a “tool of pressure” to assert their rights in the face of such an “unjustified” position of the company and fight for their well-being, that of their families and for their future.
Furthermore, after calling Iveco to a conciliation event at the Regional Mediation Institute (IRMA) on March 22, where the workers’ representatives requested a calendar of meetings and a new company platform that would not involve an attack on the workforce and not obtaining any type of agreement, the works council informed the business representatives of the strike schedule.