MADRID, 1 May. (EUROPA PRESS) –
Six government ministers plan to attend different demonstrations this Monday organized by the CCOO and UGT, under the slogan ‘Raise wages, lower prices, distribute benefits’ as a reason for May Day.
Specifically, the demonstration in Madrid will be attended by the Second Vice President of the Government and Minister of Labor and Social Economy, Yolanda Díaz; the Minister of Finance, María Jesús Montero; the Minister of Consumption, Alberto Garzón, and the Minister of Equality, Irene Montero.
Díaz and Garzón repeat for the second consecutive year in the march in Madrid, which will begin at 12:00 pm from Gran Vía and end in the Plaza de España. Also present last year were the Government spokesperson and Minister of Territorial Policy, Isabel Rodríguez, who this year is attending the event in Puertollano, and the Minister of Education, Pilar Alegría.
The sixth government minister who will attend a May Day demonstration today will be the Minister of Culture and Sports, Miquel Iceta, who will attend the union call in Barcelona.
The unions have called demonstrations in more than 70 cities in Spain, in a context of tension with the employers due to the stagnation of the negotiation of the V Agreement for Employment and Collective Bargaining.
The UGT secretary, Pepe Álvarez, UGT pointed out last week, at the press conference to present the act, that the call for so many demonstrations in the country is “significant information about the importance” that the unions give to this date ” claim”.
For Sordo, this year’s motto, ‘Raise wages, lower prices, distribute benefits’, which, in Sordo’s opinion, cannot be “more concrete” or “synthesize more the demands of the trade unions”.
The CCOO general secretary indicated that this May 1st is “very close” to the beginning of a “transcendental political cycle for Spain”, with the regional and municipal elections on May 28th.
For this reason, he asked that this May 1 be a day “of balance”, of the advances in labor and pension material that have been achieved in this legislature, with the protection of 18 million incomes, among pensioners, beneficiaries of the Salary Interprofessional Minimum (SMI) and beneficiaries of salary increases by agreement, among others.
The arrival of this May 1st also announces the end of the term that the unions gave to the Spanish Confederation of Business Organizations (CEOE) to reach an agreement on the V AENC.
The CCOO and UGT warn of an increase in mobilizations in the second part of the year if there is no progress in the AENC, and they will take advantage of this May 1st so that the employers feel “the breath of the country’s streets demanding that they put an end to greed, with the usury that business profits represent, in some cases,” as Álvarez said last week.
