Unanimous call for shorter working hours on May Day: "Life is for enjoying it."

Barcelona"For those of us with very physical jobs, beyond improving work-life balance, reducing the workday would help us reduce this workload and improve our health." Diego works in the cleaning industry and this holiday, May Day, he dedicated it to demonstrating to demand that Spain finally approve the 37.5-hour work week. The proposal to reduce the legal limit for the workday for the first time in forty years has once again been the focus of protests that have been repeated in some eighty Spanish cities.

Thousands of people—2,200 according to the Guardia Urbana (Urban Police) and more than 5,000 according to the organizers—have once again taken to the center of Barcelona to celebrate May Day and demand improvements in workers' working conditions. The majority unions, CCOO and UGT, led a demonstration that also included Catalan politicians such as the Minister of Culture, Ernest Urtasun; the president of ERC (Republican Workers' Party), Oriol Junqueras; The mayor of Barcelona, ​​​​Jaume Collboni; the spokesperson for the PSC (Spanish Socialist Workers' Party) and president of the Barcelona Provincial Council, Lluïsa Moret; and the leader of Comuns (Comuns), Jéssica Albiach. The march began in Plaça Urquinaona and continued along Via Laietana until stopping in front of the headquarters of Foment del Treball (Foment del Treball), a shorter route than usual due to the roadworks currently underway.

Around 800 people demonstrated in Girona for May Day under the same slogan "Protect our achievements, win the future," while around 750 did the same in Tarragona and around 500 in Lleida, according to union data.

May Day was supposed to arrive just after the Cabinet approved this week's bill for the reduction of the working day, but the total blackout across the Iberian Peninsula on Monday caused a further postponement of this urgent demand by the unions. The general secretary of the UGT (Catalan Workers' Union) in Catalonia, Camil Ros, has urged the Spanish government to "get connected" to move the process forward and for the parliamentary groups to vote in favor in the Congress of Deputies: "Life is for enjoying, not for working. We want to earn more and salaries that allow us to make ends meet, pay the rent, and have a vacation."

For Belén López, the new general secretary of the CCOO (Working Workers' Union) in Catalonia, this was the first major event for the trade union movement as head of the organization. The leader emphasized that working less is key to easing the burden of caregiving on women: "The way we were already doing it, nothing happened until now. We want everyone to be able to dedicate some of their time to caring for, cleaning, and taking children to school."

Also seen at the demonstration was Junts, one of the key parties in approving the measure, which has so far been more opposed than in favor of the law. Ennatu MP Domingo was chosen by the party to remind everyone that "any labor demand should take into account the cost of living in Catalonia" and that the minimum wage and pensions should be higher than in other parts of the country. However, the regional government member—on the advice of an advisor—decided not to answer the question about her support for shorter working hours, the main issue being demanded at the protest.

For her part, the Vice President of the Spanish government, Yolanda Díaz, participated in the march called in Madrid and asserted that this May Day will be the last with a 40-hour workweek. In an interview with La 1, the Sumar leader also confirmed that the government will approve its reduction in the Cabinet meeting next Tuesday: "We are at a point of no return."

Front against the extreme right

Unions have also raised the need to reform dismissals in the Spanish state. "It should be a last resort. Losing your job not only affects your resources, but also your way of life, comfort, and identity. It can't be trivialized as a business strategy," argued Belén López of the CCOO (Working Council of Workers' Commissions). Freixenet workers took advantage of the protest to raise awareness. their rejection of the ERE that affects 180 workers, 24% of the workforce, brandishing inflatable cava bottles. "We ask that they care a little about families and do things properly. It's very unfair; they make a profit every year. Before, it was a family business, and now it's increasingly like a large multinational," laments Miquel Àngel, one of the workers who may lose his job due to this decision.

Beyond the reduction in working hours and other improvements in working conditions, Thursday's demonstrations were also marked by the offensive of the far right and, in particular, by the policies of US President Donald Trump. "We unions must be clearly anti-fascist. In the face of the US and Chinese model, we need a stronger, democratically social Europe," stated Camil Ros of the UGT (Union of Workers' Unions), recalling that these reactionary movements "are also here," referring to the strength of the Aliança Catalana's rhetoric.