Antoni Cañete: "The day after the general strike there will continue to be a problem with housing"

BarcelonaThe general strike on November 11th has served to define the profiles of the country's social agents. While labor and housing unions have used the call to pressure the executive and sharpen their arguments in the sphere of work –from the SMI to the reduction of the working day or the distribution of corporate profits–, employers' associations have acknowledged the residential crisis, but not the tool chosen to respond to it. The president of the Catalan association for small and medium-sized enterprises Pimec, Antoni Cañete (Barcelona, 1963), speaks with ARA about a protest he considers "a mistake" and about a tension in the buying and rental market that appeals to "society in general".

The position of the employers' association regarding the strike has been critical. Do you understand, however, that it has reached this point?

— It is a mistake to face a problem like this with a general strike. The day before the strike we will have a housing problem, and the day after there will still be the same housing problem. Furthermore, a general strike should only be used when there is a labor dispute.

The organizers add issues related to the cost of living to the protest. Do they share that the housing crisis is related to workers' wages?

— Housing has all the derivatives, because it impacts everywhere. It is the number one social problem we currently have. And not just social: it also affects the competitiveness of the economy and businesses. One out of every two jobs that are not filled stems from the cost of housing. Housing has a general impact, it affects everyone. And we must treat it in its dimension. When there is a vulnerable person, they must be helped. But we cannot create rules that generate legal uncertainty. There are people who perhaps have been working and have a home that complements their pension. If they cannot rent, or the rent is not guaranteed, that is another type of problem. It is not a question for workers only, it is for society in general.

Is there, then, no salary-based solution to the housing crisis?

— Raising wages is urgent and necessary. For wages to be raised properly, one must have a level of productivity, absenteeism, and cost conditions that allow for it. So that we don't raise the salary today and the company has to close tomorrow. I would like to appeal to the responsibility of the unions, that things that do not conform to reality are not said. They say generically that companies have extraordinary results, but SMEs have a margin of 4.9%; and 80% of the gross value added growth has been dedicated to labor costs. It is not true that we have extraordinary results, and it is not true that we are not passing on the increases to the workers' salaries. SMEs are making a great effort so that workers do not lose purchasing power.

Companies cannot grow, in part, because of the housing market; but they need to grow to improve wages. How do you break out of this cycle?

— Policies are needed to allow our companies to grow. This is what will give us the productivity to hire more and pay better. We have the solution, and it is not a general strike. It is taking measures so that the housing market generates supply and the legal framework does not generate uncertainty. In the economic sphere, having competitive energy costs. It cannot be that the increase in energy costs serves for the administration to collect more. And this does not only harm families, but also businesses; especially those that do not have the capacity to pass on what happens in the market to prices. This is our cry: perhaps we should go on strike asking for a fair and competitive economy. If not, we are shooting ourselves in the foot.

Has the business world done enough to solve housing problems, in the terms in which it affects them?

— Possibly not. Perhaps we have not had the capacity to explain to society what the problems are and how to implement the solutions. Often people are not aware of the suffering that exists in the business world.

Is there a consensus within the business world, among small and large companies, on how this crisis should be addressed?

— Curated analyses are not being carried out, like the ones we propose. Aggregated analyses are being done, which is what the unions have done. There are listed companies that are providing growth and earnings data that are, indeed, very good. But that is not the case for SMEs. The big problem that Spain has is that, unlike Catalonia, SMEs do not have their own voice. This reality that we are explaining is not being heard everywhere I think it should be heard.

Is the uniqueness of the CEOE in the Spanish business world a problem because of how the general strike has been handled?

— The general strike affects the entire productive fabric in exactly the same way. We agree with the CEOE when they say that this strike does not stem from a labor problem. They also said they would explore legal actions, and in the end, they will not carry out any complaint. But we note that many of the situations that companies detect come directly because the Spanish employer map has this deficit: that SMEs do not have a voice. And this means that, when the situation of companies is discussed, it is spoken of as a whole. And it is not like that.

How do you evaluate, now that they have been in force for some time, the housing market regulations that are applied in Catalonia?

— In housing, it is a mistake to have a short-term vision. When prices are set, you can have an immediate effect, which can even be positive: if you intervene, the price obviously drops. But we cannot stop at this piece of data: if landlords see that they cannot raise rents, when costs rise they will not bring the housing to the market. Then, instead of solving the problem, the totally opposite effect is caused. It is necessary to create housing at an affordable price, and this will not happen if the market has no supply. If there is demand and there is no supply, people speculate with the price. And market intervention causes the opposite effect. It is a matter of common sense. The situation we are experiencing now stems from the fact that there has been no investment in creating supply, there have been no public supply policies. And this causes needs that are not met today.

Is your solution, then, to facilitate construction?

— Either the conditions are created so that the supply of housing can enter the market or everything we do will only serve as a stopgap. Policies that condition the market provide a good figure today, but do not solve the problem tomorrow.

What are construction companies reporting to you regarding the problems in the sector?

— What we are being told is, as the Spanish saying goes, that deeds are love, not good reasons. How is it possible that, with a housing problem, a construction company has to wait months to receive a building permit? There continues to be a bureaucratic problem. A few days ago, an entrepreneur explained to me that a town council had taken almost six months to grant him authorization. And then it has to be built! The apartment is not finished the next day! If housing is a problem, let the company requesting a building permit have it within fifteen days, or a month. If there is an industrial problem, let us boost the prefabricated sector. Regarding the housing issue, from a business perspective, we have a very clear diagnosis of the problem, but we do not have a shock plan to solve it.

The strike arrives just before the start of the November 29th election campaign. Does it worry you that an opposition victory in the elections might spur more protests like this one?

— We have enormous respect for democracy. We will respect the result that the people decide. Pimec is part of a fundamental pillar of democracy, which is social dialogue, and that is what we will seek with whoever forms the government. Unions must do their job, which is to participate in social dialogue. We cannot cross our bridges before we come to them. We must fulfill our role as social and economic agents. We must be responsible. It is what we do in collective bargaining, reaching agreements with the unions. Furthermore, in Catalonia, we have a very high level of maturity and capacity for agreement and disagreement, as seen in few territories.

On the most strategic issues, such as absenteeism or salaries, it seems that the distance from the unions is growing. In the major debates, is the relationship with the unions in good health?

— I believe that we are in a conjunctural situation facing elections and facing the general strike. But the reality is that we reach agreements and concretions with the unions as we have always done.