The unions calling for the strike in the Bizkaia metal sector have described the employer’s proposal as “disappointing”, and have accused the Biscayan Federation of Metal Companies (FVEM) of being “laughing at the workers in the sector and their representatives”, after the meeting held on Monday, in which “they did not even ask to call off the work stoppages.” For Iker Gonzalo, from CCOO, the employer “is betting on maintaining a pulse and a strategy of attrition.”

Workers and union representatives of the four convening centrals (ELA, CCOO, LAB y UGT) have concentrated in the esplanade of the BEC on the occasion of the inauguration of the Ferroforma contest, which brings together companies in the sector, and where they will gather again on Thursday during their closing day, to denounce “job insecurity and subcontracting” and in defense of a “worthy” agreement.

Gonzalo recalled that the unions expected for the meeting this Monday “at least one serious movement on the part of FVEM, and what we find is that it seems more than they are laughing at the workers, and so we told him openly. “

From the union point of view, the employer’s proposal is “even lower than the last one they made at the negotiating table in their day, because they propose to leave 2018 out of the agreement, a year for which they do not propose any increase or retroactivity, and what that they proposed for 2019 and 2020 is also lower than what they had already proposed and which was rejected. “

The representative of CCOO Euskadi has added that of the ten points collected in the joint platform established and raised by the four unions in common, “nothing at all in particular on issues such as subrogation, gender equality, occupational health, the right of subrogation or measures to limit the eventuality, flexibility or the hiring of temporary agencies or in terms of reduction of working hours “.

In that sense, Gonzalo has remarked that what the employers are doing is putting themselves “on the defensive”, and the unions have been struck by the fact that “at no time during the hour and a half that we were meeting, did they even ask for the dismissal of the strike “.

In his opinion, that position “says a lot about the mood that they bring to the table and the contributions and the downward offer that lead to the negotiations, because knowing that you have still called four days of strike, do not even ask to assess or dismiss the mobilizations confirm that, from our point of view, what they are proposing is a pulse. “

Wear labor

The unions recalled that the follow-up to the May 23 strike “was important”, and they have the impression that FVEM is waiting to “make comparisons with the rest of the calls that lie ahead, hoping that they will go down and that they are not as strong as the first one, which was seconded by 80% of the workers and, thus, do a work of wear and tear “.

At this point, the unions have called on the workers to support the mobilizations planned for the June 6th, Thursday, when they will gather at 10:30 before the BEC, and the next day, June 7th, to the demonstration called that will start from the Sacred Heart at 11:30 and will conclude in the Euskadi square, where the FVEM headquarters are located.

The latest proposal presented by the employer includes some increases that represent a salary increase in tables as of January 1, 2019 of a total of 3.4%, in addition to the indefinite ultra-activity and increases with respect to the tables of the agreement for the two years of validity of the same, 2019 and 2020.