Belén López (Masies de Voltregà, 1976) has been the general secretary of CCOO of Catalonia for a year and a half. The union leader assures ARA that she expects the strike to be a success, as the public feels “challenged”. López asserts that, on the 11th, CCOO will play a key role in stopping the main Catalan workplaces: "We will steer the closure of companies and, as is to be expected, we will participate in all activities that take place with the prominence that comes with being the leading union in Catalonia".

This Monday, the majority unions –CCOO and UGT– began the final stretch towards the general strike of November 11th with a large joint assembly in Cornellà de Llobregat. The event, which brought together some 2,500 members from both organizations, called for raising wages and lowering the price of housing. The leaders of the country's main trade union organizations also took the opportunity to criticize the employers' association and right-wing parties. "Between the homeland and the flag, they always choose the wallet," stated the general secretary of UGT of Catalonia, Camil Ros.

The tragic railway accident in Urda, in the province of Toledo, which has already left about seventy fatalities, has sparked unrest among railway workers, controllers, and train drivers, especially after this Wednesday the Minister of Transport, Óscar Puente, pointed directly to the "human error" of an operator in the Adif control center room.

A strike on the "offensive". This is how the general secretary of Comissions Obreres de Catalunya, Belén López, defined the general strike scheduled for November 11th this Thursday, the first 24-hour strike in 14 years. "It is an opportunity for trade unionism to change its stride," assured the leader of the Principality's majority union in a meeting with journalists, adding that "the era of reaching agreements has ended, unfortunately."

BBVA will distribute a dividend of 37 cents per share to its shareholders, the highest in its history. According to the entity, the operation will be effective on October 15 and will involve a total payout of 2 billion euros. This increase, 16% more than the interim remuneration of the previous year, will be charged against the 2026 results, a fiscal year that, for now, is breaking all records. During the first half of the year, BBVA achieved a net profit of 6.051 billion euros, 10% more than in the same period last year.

"Infeasible". "I see it as difficult". "We are already in the pre-election period". These are some of the reflections that various union and business voices make when asked about the possibility of tripartite agreements for the remainder of the Spanish legislative term. Pedro Sánchez took his first three-way photo in January 2020, after an agreement with the Spanish employers' association CEOE and the majority unions CCOO and UGT to raise the minimum interprofessional wage (SMI) to 950 euros per month. "It has been the fruit of social dialogue and is based on the solidarity concession of the social agents," Sánchez pointed out at the time, thanking the top social leaders – Unai Sordo (CCOO), Pepe Álvarez (UGT), and Antonio Garamendi (CEOE) – for their "willingness to reach an agreement". More than six years later, some see that dialogue, but also that negotiating will, as a mirage. Although there are those who do not lose hope: "Water under the bridge does not turn the mill".

The academic year has begun with alarms ringing in the unions, but also in the public administration, after the Volkswagen group put the Seat brand in play, which has placed the Martorell factory in the crosshairs. "Martorell will not disappear," stated the secretary general of CCOO, Unai Sordo, this Monday morning during an intervention at the Ateneo de Madrid. The message seeks to provide reassurance, especially to the employees, and the president of the Generalitat, Salvador Illa, and the Minister of Economy, Carlos Cuerpo, also joined in this Monday. In fact, they have all rushed to defend the Seat brand: "It is historic," Sordo affirmed. "It is a product that must continue to be championed," he reiterated.

When at the beginning of the year the big Rodalies crisis broke out –after the fatal accident in Gelida and the numerous damages caused by two storms– many users looked for an alternative to avoid the incidents of the conventional service. Those who could, switched to Avant trains: they are more expensive, but also faster, as they run between cities on the high-speed network with regulated fares, and accumulate many fewer delays. For many travelers, arriving on time for work, a medical appointment, or university has already become a priority that weighs more than the cost of the ticket.

“We want our first words to be a remembrance-homage to the workers murdered, imprisoned, and repressed by fascism, for their struggle for union freedom, democratic and national freedoms, for our rights and class interests”. On July 11, 1976, one week after the fall of Carlos Arias Navarro's government, more than 600 workers from all over Spain gathered at the Sant Medir church in Barcelona to celebrate what was the last clandestine national assembly of the Workers' Commissions (CCOO). A church was chosen as the meeting point because it was the only place where the right to assemble was permitted.

With the continuity of Pedro Sánchez's government in the spotlight, the general secretary of CCOO, Unai Sordo, has come out in defense of the president of the Spanish executive: "I believe he will not step down from the presidency, nor do I think he should, he must exhaust all that remains of his term", he stated during his speech at the summer course of the Menéndez Pelayo International University and the Association of Journalists of Economic Information, held this week in Santander.

“More industry, but, above all, of better quality”: Salvador Illa and the country's main economic agents have sealed this Monday the new National Pact for Industry. The roadmap until 2030 foresees an investment of almost 4,500 million euros in 190 actions comprised in five major areas, such as innovation or employment. During his speech, the President of the Generalitat emphasized that the agreement "is not a sectoral pact" but a "national and future pact". The text has been agreed with the two main employers' associations in the territory, Foment del Treball and Pimec, and the two majority trade unions, Comisiones Obreras (CCOO) and UGT. The objective: that by 2030 industry represents 25% of Catalonia's gross domestic product (GDP), the macroeconomic indicator that measures the monetary value of all final goods and services produced within a territory.

This morning there is again a meeting between the Department of Education and the teaching unions at the headquarters of the ministry. The unions will not have to walk far to get there, because they have spent the night locked in the ministry.

UGT 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.

UGT 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.

The two majority unions, CCOO and UGT, have shown unity with concrete proposals on dismissals, housing, part-time contracts, and social dialogue and collective bargaining. This Tuesday, the two organizations have presented a joint plan around these matters that provides a boost for union action, especially on the eve of May Day, but which also serves as a "transmission belt" for those concerns affecting workers that, in the opinion of the union organizations, the political agenda marked by tension is not addressing. "We are facing an initiative [union] that has few precedents," indicated the Secretary of Union Action for CCOO, Javier Pacheco, at a press conference.

The Catalan government needs a budget to function properly. Currently, it is still operating under the extended 2023 budget, which severely limits the administration's room for maneuver and leaves it short of approximately €1.5 billion. This amount remains unused because new expenses or projects cannot be included due to the lack of a budget. This sum is equivalent to the annual allocation of departments such as the Department of Business and Labor or the Department of Universities and Research. The truth is, citizens deserve a government that operates with a budget that reflects the country's current needs, not figures that were based on the reality of three years ago. Furthermore, having a budget would allow the government to make the most of the resources generated by record tax revenues thanks to economic growth. This includes both taxes in which Catalonia participates, such as personal income tax (IRPF), and those collected directly and transferred to the government (inheritance and property transfer taxes) under the current financing system.

In 2025, each Spanish worker performed 5.6 hours of unpaid overtime per week, according to an analysis presented this Monday by the CCOO economic team. This study concludes that €141 per week, equivalent to €7,355 per year, went unpaid in wages and social security contributions for employees due to this unpaid work. This represents 2.49 million unpaid overtime hours, affecting a total of 441,000 people, or 2.3% of the salaried population. In Catalonia, workers put in 495,000 hours of overtime each week, making it the second-highest autonomous community after Madrid (582,000 hours). In fact, Catalonia has 91,000 salaried workers who worked more hours per week than stipulated in their contracts for the same pay, also ranking second. Even so, in terms of the proportion of the total salaried workforce, it fell to fourth place, with 2.7% of Catalans working unpaid overtime. According to the CCOO union, using data from the Labor Force Survey (EPA) of the National Institute of Statistics (INE), there are 928,000 people who regularly worked more hours than agreed upon, without any data indicating that these hours were paid or subject to social security contributions. Within this figure, the report emphasizes, there are 568,000 workers with a 40-hour workweek who regularly worked more hours, "which, a priori, would violate labor legislation regarding working hours." The union estimates that the 2.49 million unpaid overtime hours averaged weekly in 2025 would equate to an annual labor cost of €3.243 billion that companies and public administrations failed to pay workers. This sum includes not only wages but also social security contributions and direct taxes that are no longer being collected by the Tax Agency. Education, the most affected sector

By sector, those with the highest volume of unpaid overtime were education (440,000 hours), transportation and storage (270,000), manufacturing (255,000), and retail (217,000). The teachers' union also has the most workers affected by this labor issue, with 72,000 people working more hours per week than agreed upon without any additional compensation. In contrast, if we look at the incidence, the electricity, gas, steam, and air conditioning supply sector and the financial and insurance sector have the highest percentage of employees working unpaid overtime, at 5.6% in both cases. Education ranks third, with 4.9% of its employees in this situation. On the other hand, the sectors with the highest average intensity of unpaid overtime are transportation (8.3 hours), agriculture and livestock farming (7.1 hours), and construction (6.5 hours).

The last time Pedro Sánchez ratified an increase in the national minimum wage (SMI) was in 2020, from the Moncloa Palace, following an agreement with the major unions, CCOO and UGT, and the Spanish employers' associations, CEOE and Cepyme. Six years later, Sánchez has once again presided over another minimum wage increase. This time, he did so from the Ministry of Labor, alongside the Minister, Yolanda Díaz (Sumar), and the two union leaders, Unai Sordo (CCOO) and Pepe Álvarez (UGT), but without the employers' associations, with whom Sánchez did not hesitate to distance himself. The Spanish president criticized the employers' associations for withdrawing from the agreement to raise the SMI to €1,221 per month by 2026. "Where are the employers?" the Spanish president asked this Monday at the signing ceremony for the new increase. "It is unacceptable that in a context of economic prosperity, those earning the minimum wage are scrutinized while those earning a lot of money are not," Sánchez said. On the eve of negotiations between unions and employers to update the current agreement for employment and collective bargaining (AENC), the Spanish president endorsed the position. "Pay them more!""From Joe Biden four years ago. "Let them pay more," he said. "Let no one tell us that salaries can't be raised when profits grow, when the economy is advancing," Sánchez reiterated.

Last year, 109 workers died in work-related accidents in Catalonia, a 22.5% increase compared to the previous year. Data from the Observatory of Labor and the Production Model sheds light on the trend of workplace accidents in 2025, a year in which the number of victims reached its highest level in the last 14 years. One has to go back to 2011, when 113 people died, to find a higher figure.

In 2026, an estimated 301,884 cases of cancer will be detected in Spain, 166,764 in men and 133,120 in women, according to data from the Spanish Society of Medical Oncology (SEOM). Of these, approximately 5% would never have occurred without exposure to carcinogens in the workplace. The CCOO union published the report this Tuesday. Workplace cancer, the leading cause of death at workCoinciding with World Cancer Day, the organization states, according to its own calculations, that this year there will be 15,999 cancer cases and 6,126 deaths from this disease attributable to workplace exposures in Spain. Cancer is the leading cause of work-related deaths in the European Union, accounting for 53% of all work-related deaths each year, compared to 28% for cardiovascular diseases and 6% for respiratory diseases, according to 2017 data from the European Commission. Carcinogenic agents remain a challenge for many companies. In fact, they emphasize that one in four Spanish workers is exposed to workplace carcinogens, while in Europe the figure is one in five, according to estimates from the CAREX database.