CCOO and UGT charge against the employers' association and the right wing at the doors of the general strike

Cornellà de LlobregatThis Monday, the majority unions –CCOO and UGT– began the final stretch towards the general strike of November 11th with a large joint assembly in Cornellà de Llobregat. The event, which brought together some 2,500 members from both organizations, called for raising wages and lowering the price of housing. The leaders of the country's main trade union organizations also took the opportunity to criticize the employers' association and right-wing parties. "Between the homeland and the flag, they always choose the wallet," stated the general secretary of UGT of Catalonia, Camil Ros.

His counterpart from CCOO, Belén López, addressed Foment del Treball directly to demand that the employers' association stop being an obstacle to Catalonia's economy. "Stop being a bottleneck for the economy of Catalonia and for companies, stop crying because you can't find people; give good wages and eliminate unpaid overtime," requested López, who sentenced: "The problem is you, gentlemen of Foment".

For his part, the confederal general secretary of the UGT, Pepe Álvarez, has assured that the strike "is directed at the CEOE" and against its blockade of the State Agreement for Collective Bargaining (AENC) which would allow for salary increases. The spokesperson for the Tenants' Union, Carme Arcarazo, has also attacked the main Spanish employers' association, addressing the president of the entity: "Mr. Garamendi, what you want is not a democracy, it is a country of slaves".

Pensions, at the center of the debate

The debate over the pension system has also had a high degree of prominence at the major union event in Catalonia. Both UGT and CCOO have defended that the current system works and have refused a possible reform. "The pension agreement must not be touched!", exclaimed Álvarez in reference to the current pact that stipulates that pensioners' remuneration increases year by year according to inflation. The leader of CCOO of Catalonia, moreover, has demanded that the current system be "guaranteed", after ensuring that pensions are the "big bite" that the right and the far right plan to take.

Regarding the prospects for the strike, CCOO and UGT predict a "great success" and observe an "increasingly high" rate of adhesions. "There will be a before and an after", pointed out Álvarez, who assured that the entire Baix Llobregat and all of Catalonia will come to a standstill. Sordo added that CCOO counts 700 company committees in Catalonia alone, while López celebrated that the rate of adhesions is getting higher and higher, with the adherence of Seat in the Baix Llobregat as an important milestone. At the national level, the union already registers 3,400 adhesions, as reported today in a message on X. For her part, the spokesperson for the Tenants' Union, Carme Arcarazo, estimated at more than 4,000 across Spain the company committees adhering to the strike, a figure that sums up the support gathered by CGT, Intersindical, CCOO, and UGT and those registered on the Confederation of Tenants' Unions website.