Lakuntza: “Most of the Araba metal employees will not receive any salary increase”

Euskaraz irakurri: Lakuntza: “Arabako metalgintzako langile gehienei ez zaie ezarriko soldata igoerarik”

The unions LAB, CC. OO. and UGT reached, yesterday, with the Alava-SEA employers’ association a principle of agreement at the negotiating table of the Metal de Araba agreement, which includes a wage increase for the validity of the agreement (until the year 2025) of more than 15% and with a guarantee clause of the CPI at the end of it, a reduction in annual working hours, subrogation and “improvements in equality”. ELA distanced itself from the pact arguing that “it does not guarantee the CPI and the insufficient improvements will only apply to a minority.”

interviewed in Euskadi Irratiathe general secretary of ELA, Mitxel Lakuntzahave insisted that “the majority of metal workers in Araba will not receive any wage increase” because “the increase will not be applied to real wages, but to the tables.”

As he explained, in most companies in the sector, “thanks to the struggle of the workers”, salaries today are above the amounts included in the salary tables. “The increase that has been signed is not going to be applied to real wages and most of the workers are not going to see even one euro more. ELA asks that the increase be applied to real wages,” she specified.

Likewise, he assured that if the strike calls for this week had not been called off, “more improvements would have been achieved for the workers.” In this sense, he has criticized the attitude of the UGT and LAB unions, which have decided not to continue the demonstrations.

Lankuntza has also referred to the rent agreement demanded by the Basque Government to deal with inflation and has asked Lehendakari Iñigo Urkullu “what is the rent agreement”. “In practice, the income pact would be what the employers propose at the negotiating table; a rise of 3% when the CPI is above 10%. Is that the pact that Urkullu is talking about?”

Asked about the Draft of the Education Law, the general secretary of ELA has been very critical of the content of the text for being “too general” and seeking to “perpetuate the current system”. “He does not propose anything new: he renounces a new curriculum of his own, does not develop linguistic immersion and does not address the problem of segregation. Nor are measures proposed to put an end to temporary workers”, he added. With this scenario, ELA has shown its willingness to continue negotiating with the Basque Government, but does not rule out demonstrations “if the situation does not change”.

Finally, on the eve of the General Policy Plenary scheduled for Thursday in the Basque Parliament, the leader of the ELA union has called, once again, for a broad country agreement on taxation. As he has denounced, today “there is only one agreement in progress, a great pact not to change anything.” “There is an objective fact: while the profits of Ibex companies are the highest in history, the impoverishment of citizens is accelerating. Public intervention is needed, left-wing measures. The Basque and Navarrese governments are currently to the right of the IMF”, he concluded.