LAB has shown its regret that, shortly after the end of the year, the process of organizing the general strike has not yielded the desired result. The trade union majority has not been able to agree on the achievement of this objective. Although, for the moment, the possibility of a general strike is ruled out, the union has explained that for LAB the general strike is not an objective in itself, but “a tool to promote a new period of struggle.”

To do this, as they have explained, in the coming weeks they will focus on “promoting a Basque roadmap to multiply union struggles in the workplace, promote social dynamics in the street and transform working and living conditions.”

In a statement, the union stated that on May Day it claimed the need for a general strike for two main reasons. On the one hand, to “respond to the deficits evidenced by the pandemic and the consequences for workers, such as the inadequacy of the health system, the lack of a public community care system or the precarious nature of the jobs that are carried out. consider essential “; and, on the other, “aware that important decisions would be made at the state level (the pension reform conditioned by the European Funds or the labor reform, among others), to influence them and, above all, to make possible in Euskal Herria a transformative journey that is not possible in Madrid “.

After the summer, other agents took a position in favor of the general strike, such as the pensioners’ movement and the rest of the unions with a union majority. As they have underlined, “there was a sufficient majority to call the general strike, despite the different positions regarding its nature and management between LAB and ELA.”

However, the two majority unions in Euskal Herria have not reached an agreement, neither in ways nor in timing. LAB has described as “error”, for example, that ELA has adhered to the stage and the agenda of Madrid because “it limits the own path that must be traveled in Euskal Herria”.

Likewise, LAB proposed that the strike call be carried out “as soon as possible” so that “in order to have the maximum impact on the evolution of events.” On the contrary, ELA, which stated that the general strike should be held before the end of the year, preferred “to wait for the most appropriate moment” to call it, “thinking that the decisions taken in Madrid would trigger the general strike” .

In this sense, LAB considers that the process of organizing the general strike in the short term has reached a “dead end” and that “waiting for an event that would trigger the strike has meant losing the opportunity to influence events.”.