There are dates that call into question. May Day is one, by definition. It is not a complacent anniversary or an empty ritual: it is an uncomfortable mirror that forces us to ask ourselves if work allows us to live with dignity or if, on the contrary, it is becoming normalized that millions of working people do not make ends meet. This year, this challenge is harder than ever. The slogan we have agreed upon with the unions –“Rights, not trenches. Wages, housing, and democracy”– is not a rhetorical catchphrase: it is a line of defense against those who seek to substitute rights for confrontation, cohesion for division, and social dialogue for imposition.All this occurs, moreover, in an adverse international context, marked by geopolitical instability, open conflicts, and the dispute over the control of energy and supply chains. The aggression against Ukraine, the escalation in the Middle East – with attacks against Iran outside international law – and trade tensions between powers directly impact daily life: more inflation in essential goods, volatile energy prices, and declining real wages. And this adjustment often ends up falling on labor.Catalonia is not foreign to this context. On the contrary: it embodies it with special intensity. It is one of the most dynamic economies in the State, with average wages above the average –around 34,700 euros per year–, but also with deep internal divides and growing pressure on the living conditions of working people. Because the question is not only how much is growing, but how this growth is distributed. And here collective bargaining is an essential tool.The distributive conflict is today at the center of the debate. While business profits have shown remarkable resilience even in this uncertain environment, wages have lost purchasing power. And when work does not guarantee a dignified life, social cohesion cracks. Therefore, wage improvement is not a conjunctural claim, but structural: it is the basic condition for sustaining the social contract, for strengthening domestic demand, and for preventing economic recovery from being built on fragile foundations. Collective bargaining must continue to be the instrument that orders this distribution, that closes gaps – including the gender gap – and that prevents growth from concentrating in the hands of a few.
To this tension is added, with particular intensity in Catalonia, the housing problem. Access to affordable rent has become the main factor of inequality, with prices in cities like Barcelona far exceeding 1,100 euros per month after years of accumulated increases that have doubled their cost in just a decade. The policies adopted –rent limitation in tense areas, reduction of tourist apartments, strengthening of residential rentals– point in the right direction, but they have not yet managed to reverse a structural problem aggravated by the lack of affordable supply. When a working person dedicates a disproportionate part of their salary to housing, they not only lose savings capacity: they lose freedom, they lose life projects.In this context, talking about social democracy is not a rhetorical exercise: it is affirming that rights cannot regress or be fragmented based on people's origin or condition. Faced with those who raise trenches from extremist positions, pointing to immigrants or weakening social cohesion, trade unionism claims the value of agreement, coexistence, and mutual recognition. Catalonia has historically been a land of welcome, work, and shared progress. This model, based on integration and equality of rights, is also a guarantee of democratic stability and prosperity.Because, in the end, everything is connected. We are talking about people with rights, wherever they come from, who cannot be pushed into precariousness or turned into exploitable labor. Without decent wages there is no real equality. Without access to housing there is no effective freedom. And without social cohesion there is no democracy that can withstand it.This May 1st is not just a date on the calendar. It is a call to reinforce the fair distribution of wealth, to protect rights, and to reject trenches. Because the future, if it is to be shared, can only be built from social justice.
