There is no going back. The silence, the lack of response and the fact that Yolanda Díaz and María Jesús Montero -nor any of its representatives in the Ministries of Labor and Finance- did not respond to their demands forced the Treasury inspectors to maintain the first of the three-day strike, convened next Wednesday, and even plans to harden its position with more strikes and concentrations. For this reason, and given the “absolute absence of dialogue”, the inspectors decided today to make their demands visible by attending the press conference during which the Minister of Labor presented the report of expertise on the increase in the interprofessional minimum wage (SMI) . Carrying whistles and shouting phrases such as “let’s strike”; “Stop lying” or “Why don’t you want to negotiate” let Díaz know their displeasure and the reasons why they decided to call a strike.
At a previous press conference, representatives of the trade union platform – made up of the majority of workers’ organisations, CC OO, Usess, Sitss, Sislass and CIG – confirmed that the strike continues because the two ministries “are not capable of bringing absolutely anything that would allow us to identify this goodwill which we have all believed to exist within this administration”. Four other organizations (UGT, CSIF, UPIT and Seslaess) decided “to wait until the end of the year to give them the last chance to keep their promises”, but they also warned that if the government did not move forward in their demands “we will join the strike.”
The organizers announced the stoppage of all services for three alternate days: December 21, January 25 and February 22. And the reasons “have not changed for seven months”, when the first strike was called off after Yolanda Díaz promised to “resolve all the shortcomings and shortcomings of this body”, he said at the time. But Until today “nothing has progressed” and the problems and breaches are piling up. “Serious shortage of personnel, lack of professional career and work horizon which contributes to the decapitalization of the workforce; lack of recognition and dignity of the functions performed in each of the Inspection posts with an obsolete and unfair RPT, unaffordable workloads; lack of technical and material means, as well as the non-respect of the processing and management deadlines committed at the end of the year by the Administration, both the Ministry of Labor and the Ministry of Finance, to concretize the agreement”.
While they recalled that there are currently 1,967 labor inspectors -60 more than in March, when the previous strike was called- and 1,228 civil servants from the general support, administrative and structural bodies , they pointed out that “the strategic plan cannot be filled with booklets, you cannot answer two chapters, you must complete it completely. No temporary measures are necessary. There is a strategic plan signed, approved by the Council of Ministers and published in the BOE which has been paralyzed without giving any explanation“, launched the representative of CC OO, Josetxo Gándara, who pointed out that what is most worrying is “this attitude that the Ministry of Labor has shown, for example with the set of minimum services”.
On behalf of SITSS, Ana Ercoreca justified the mobilizations because “they left us no choice. We want the social function and the enormous value that the expression of work has in Spanish society to be recognized and translated, and for a list of competent, worthy and necessary jobs to be approved”. He also reiterated the lack of material and personal means, because “The staff is not reinforced, only patches are put”, so “it will not be able to be effective and efficient enough to provide and ensure a public service to citizens”. He also denounced that they had been with the same job list for 22 years without any substantial change “and that the circumstances have changed”.
The representative of the CIG in the state body, José Juan Fernández, assured that the objective of the strike is “to achieve a labor inspection of the future that offers sufficient coverage to the needs with the changes on the labor market and the regulations that are produced both at national and at European level”. He also pointed out that “This is the first call for attention” and “a strike of the whole inspection system”.
All the union representatives gathered at the event stressed that what they want is that “what the administration agreed with us on July 7, 2021 be achieved. Nothing more, We’re not asking for anything new, or requests we haven’t already asked for. This shows the lack of will of Díaz and Montero″.
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