Belén López: "If housing prices rise twice as fast as wages, we're negotiating for the pockets of rentiers."

BarcelonaBelén López (Les Masies de Voltregà, 1976) meets with the ARA (Argentine Workers' Union) with her suitcase ready to catch the AVE (High-Speed Train) to Girona, after three intense days of congresses during which she was elected the first female general secretary of the CCOO (Working Workers' Union) in Catalonia. She will replace Javier Pacheco at the head of the country's largest union, with nearly 147,000 members.

Since you submitted your candidacy, the talk has been mostly about your gender. Has that bothered you?

— I think we should normalize it; it hasn't bothered me, and in a way, I understand it. It's a significant fact that a woman has become the general secretary; we also want to highlight it. There are many women involved in union activism in many areas of my union and others, and it's good to make visible something we've been doing for many years.

Have you encountered sexist situations with union colleagues or employers with whom you've had to negotiate?

— All women have experienced sexism in all spheres: at school, at work, in the places where we're active... Look, three or four days ago a businessman told me: "You have to be very brave to do this." What does this mean? It means that this space isn't yours and that if you go, it's because you have to be very brave. You never say this to a man.

In your speech, you referred to bringing a "feminist perspective" to the union. How does this come about?

— We propose the need to articulate a national care system, like a national education or healthcare system, from a public and collective perspective, avoiding mercantilist visions and guaranteeing the labor rights of the people, mostly women, who work in these sectors. The State must articulate this national care system, and men must participate in their role. Companies must also begin to assume their share. Having an employee ready to work every morning, cared for, fed, and trained, comes at a cost that women are bearing for free. We must start talking about paid leave, reduced working hours without pay, and the organization of work. We have always done this, but in a more forceful way.

Together, you'll play a key role in pushing through the reduction of the working day in Congress. Do you think they'll vote in favor?

— I hope they're in favor because there are no economic arguments to oppose it. Society is no longer what it was 40 years ago when the 40-hour work week was established. Women have now entered the workforce en masse, family units are different, economic margins and productivity have increased dramatically, and workers are the protagonists of this increase in productivity. Therefore, there must be a return to us. If they take a position against it, let them explain to Catalan society how this benefits them. I'd like to know.

Are you worried about BBVA's takeover bid for Sabadell?

— We're concerned about job losses, but not only about that. We're also concerned about ensuring access to banking services and how this could affect the economy. We want to be present and share information as legal representatives in this transaction.

They want to be more active in defending the right to housing.

— You can raise wages significantly, but if housing prices then rise twice as much as the salary increase, we're negotiating for the pockets of rentiers, not for the improvements of working people. Public policies must be implemented to guarantee basic products like housing, because otherwise, all the improvements you gain on one side you lose on the other. They are connecting channels. As a union, what we're going to do is negotiate for this to go along these lines and mobilize in the streets. It's a right we already have, but one that hasn't been realized.

What relationship will they have with the housing unions?

— We already have a super good relationship. In fact, we've formed the Appeal for Housing, and we're the organizers of the recent protests in Catalonia.

Do you think the housing measures promoted by the Spanish and Catalan governments have fallen short?

— There is room for improvement and it must be ambitious.

Are pressures from the real estate sector holding governments back from being more ambitious?

— Regardless of who wants to please us or not, we have clear proposals. I don't know about the pressure they'll receive from other quarters, nor do I care. What we are clear about is that for working people, housing is one of the main problems, taking up more than 40% of their income.

How do you assess the current political situation in Catalonia?

— We are at a time when there is a brutal reactionary movement that is questioning the foundations of the democratic system. This spurious use of immigration as a scapegoat by the far right goes absolutely against our work. It is a frontal attack on our values, and therefore we view it with great concern. What we do is articulate divergent interests, uniting the social and labor demands of very diverse people, with the common goal of social justice, freedom, and equality.

Could the far right make its way into trade unionism?

— It's so contrary to our values that I don't see them being able to penetrate the union space. The best antidote to preventing the far right from reaching working people is to guarantee their material conditions. When someone is in a precarious situation, when they are uncertain, when they don't know if they'll make ends meet, when they don't know if they have a home, the siren call of easy solutions can reach the most vulnerable sectors. It's important for the left to understand that they must have broad vision in these times. This requires creating a broad social agenda and having budgets.