UGT and CCOO challenge employers to negotiate a salary agreement on the eve of May Day

MadridUGT and CCOO had been planning to "decentralize" the main May Day demonstration and change Madrid as the location for some time, as explained by the general secretary of CCOO, Unai Sordo, this Monday. Finally, they have opted for Malaga, but it has not escaped anyone's notice that it coincides with the start of the electoral campaign in Andalusia. In fact, it is taken for granted that the socialist candidate for Andalusia and until recently the first vice-president of the Spanish government, María Jesús Montero, will attend. "It has nothing to do with the elections [...] [The mobilization] cannot be improvised from one day to the next," the unions have indicated, thus ruling out the idea of a conscious coincidence. The choice of the Andalusian city is due to the fact that it experiences the problem of access to housing firsthand, as they have explained.

Be that as it may, the spotlight will shift to a playing field where the PP right is playing for an absolute majority, while the left fears encountering results similar to those obtained in the last regional elections: from Extremadura to Castilla y León. In fact, in the case of Extremadura, the PP and Vox have reached an agreement which, among other things, has targeted the aid received precisely by the unions, but also the rights of migrants, coinciding with the regularization process, which both unions defend: "We have a cruel, classist, and racist far-right," CCOO general secretary Unai Sordo denounced at a press conference this Monday.

The decision by Pedro Sánchez's government to regularize half a million people is one of the issues that UGT and CCOO want to claim this May Day, when the slogan of the mobilizations will be Rights, not trenches. Wages, housing, and democracy. "It must be done with full guarantees," warned the general secretary of UGT, Pepe Álvarez. The unions reject that the process represents an open door for more precariousness: "It is said that a perverse use can be made [by employers] to lower wages, but this is protected by law. Regularization helps the opposite. The more irregularity, the more vulnerability and precariousness," Sordo defended.

Review of the SMI due to inflation

But the two unions will also put on the table other economic and labor issues that exist in the State and particularly in territories like Catalonia, where different sectors, such as doctors, teachers, drivers, or farmers, have challenged the Government. They will take advantage of the mobilization to challenge the Spanish employers' association CEOE to open negotiations for a new Agreement for Employment and Collective Bargaining (AENC) and which, in addition to a wage increase that allows collective agreements to be guided, incorporates other issues such as working hours, especially after the reduction to 37.5 weekly hours in Congress derailed. However, talks are "stalled," Sordo acknowledged. "If [the employers] do not agree to negotiate, it is evident that there will be conflicts, because it is evident that an important part of the country's wealth must be shared," said the CCOO leader. "If [Antonio] Garamendi is interested [in reaching an agreement], I ask him for a day and time to resume negotiations," added Álvarez.

UGT and CCOO also do not rule out pressuring for a review of the increase in the interprofessional minimum wage if inflation soars in the coming months due to the conflict in the Middle East and tensions on the energy market in this 2026. Now the minimum wage is 1,221 euros gross per month.

International component

Beyond this, UGT and CCOO are proposing a May Day with a strong international component due to the decisions of the Donald Trump administration, as already happened in 2025. "It is in dispute whether the countries of Europe will be autonomous or will suffer a situation of vassalage [with respect to the United States]," stated the general secretary of CCOO, Unai Sordo, at a press conference this Monday. "[The mobilization] will be a cry against war, a cry demanding peace".