UGT and CCOO challenge the employers' association to negotiate a wage pact on the eve of May Day

MadridUGT and CCOO had long been proposing to "decentralize" the main May Day demonstration and change Madrid as the location, 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 election campaign in Andalusia. In fact, it is taken for granted that the socialist candidate for Andalusia and until recently 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 overnight," the unions indicated, thus ruling out the idea of a conscious coincidence. The choice of the Andalusian city is due to the fact that it experiences firsthand the problem of access to housing, as they explained.

Be that as it may, the focus will shift to a chessboard 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, 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," denounced the general secretary of CCOO, Unai Sordo, at a press conference this Monday.

The decision of Pedro Sánchez's government to regularize half a million people is one of the elements that UGT and CCOO want to claim this May Day, where the slogan of the mobilizations will be Rights, not trenches. Salaries, housing, and democracy. "It must be done with full guarantees," warned the general secretary of UGT, Pepe Álvarez. The unions reject that the process implies an open door to more precariousness: "It is said that it can be used perversely [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 for inflation

However, 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 failed in Congress. The talks, however, 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 a significant part of the country's wealth must be redistributed," said the CCOO leader. "If [Antonio] Garamendi is interested [in reaching an agreement], I ask him for a day and time to resume negotiations," Álvarez added.

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

International component

Beyond that, UGT and CCOO are planning a May Day with a strong international component due to the decisions of Donald Trump's 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".