Prison reintegration workers' unions have called off Union sources have stated in declarations to ARA that this commission formalizes for the first time this joint task to review the safety of CIRE staff, the public company that employs inmates within prisons and also hires the trainers who teach trades to inmates and who work with them in cafeteries and canteens.

After a May marked by teacher mobilizations, it is now the turn of doctors, who want to carry out stoppages in the healthcare system throughout the State during the entire month of June. Medical unions Ni un minut més, which urges doctors to stop doing any extraordinary voluntary activity outside of working hours.

The consultation on the preliminary agreement between the majority unions and the Department of Education will begin on Monday at 12 noon and will last until Thursday. For this reason, USTEC and Professors of Secondary Education have announced that they are calling off the territorial strikes planned until Thursday “as a day of reflection” while the vote is open. However, the call for Friday is maintained pending teachers evaluating the preliminary agreement with the Government.

There is one year left until the municipal elections and only ten days until the Pope's visit to Barcelona, and the labor conflict with part of the City Council staff is growing. In fact, social workers will maintain their strike for June 9 and 10, coinciding with the pontiff's presence. This Friday, in an extraordinary plenary session requested by the Junts, Comuns, and ERC groups, Jaume Collboni's government has been left alone with Vox against opening a dialogue space with the three minority unions –CGT, Intersindical, and ABACOS, with only 3 out of the 15 members of the negotiation table–, who have called for 30 days of partial stoppages in basic social services, gender-based violence, childhood, libraries, nursery schools, social emergencies, or citizen attention.partial stoppages in basic social services, gender-based violence, childhood, libraries, nursery schools, social emergencies, or citizen attention.

Workers involved in reintegration in Catalan prisons have announced a strike for Thursday, June 11, as prison sources have explained to ARA. It is the third professional group to have called for stoppages this year, after teachers and healthcare workers. "We are the only group whose working and safety conditions are still pending review," denounced the inter-center committee of the Centre d'Iniciatives per a la Reinserció (CIRE), the public company that employs and trains prisoners.

This afternoon, the Department of Education has sent its proposal for negotiation to the unions. As detailed in the document made public by CGT and USTEC, the Government will put on the table the option of advancing by one year the already agreed salary increase and the possibility of making a "remuneration improvement" through the bonuses that teachers receive for being responsible for tutoring. Although sources from Education insist that they will not explain or confirm the details of the proposal until after the meeting with the unions, CGT and USTEC have sent the same working document to the press with the Department of Education's watermark.

No agreement. The second meeting between the Ministry of Education and Valencian unions will end with positions still far apart and will not serve to end an indefinite strike that already totals six days and continues to enjoy broad support, as demonstrated by the fact that this Monday, according to Generalitat data, 39.7% of teachers have joined it.

Suddenly, the protesters begin to shout: "Out, police!" Shortly after, two people leave the protest walking and disappear around a corner. Who are they? Normally, a pair of agents from the Mossos d'Esquadra, from the General Information Commissioner's Office, who dress in plain clothes and listen closely to the demonstrations, especially those that may have a violent component. Now, let's assume that the demonstration has ended in riots and the protesters gather in an assembly to decide the next steps. It is also not strange that there are camouflaged Mossos agents to hear what they will do.

The standoff between the Valencian Ministry of Education and teachers continues on the second day of the strike, in which the teaching staff has once again prominently supported the protest. According to the Generalitat, participation was 35%. According to teachers' representatives, the percentage has risen to 75%.

The prison system's response to the murder of a cook at Mas d'Enric has not satisfied all workers. In fact, it has fueled protests from some prison professionals. Two years after the crime, some workers denounce a "sustained discrimination" compared to their colleagues, security officers. Those protesting are staff from the same public company where Núria López worked when an inmate killed her and then committed suicide. Now, the inter-center committee – which represents the workers of this company throughout Catalonia – threatens a strike if the Generalitat does not agree before next Tuesday to give them the same improvements that Interior officials and other professionals in the sector have received.

Direct citizen service workers at Barcelona City Council have taken to the streets in another day of strike, which has caused basic social services, direct violence care, and libraries to operate at half capacity this Tuesday. The protesters' main grievance is the refusal to accept the new labor agreement that the council has signed with the CCOO, UGT, and CSIF unions, as they consider it to be a "loss of rights for the professionals" in this sector and, in turn, impacts "the quality of services and the rights of citizens." The council has downplayed the impact of the strike and indicated that at 10 a.m., only 3.8% of the 13,000 workers had joined the call.

Almost 40% of the staff –38.5% pending the final figure, which will be made public tomorrow–, according to the Generalitat, and up to 80%, according to workers' representatives. The educational strike called this Tuesday in the Valencian Country by the unions STEPV, Comisiones Obreras, UGT, and CSIF has achieved significant participation from teachers who have also filled the streets of the main cities to denounce the "critical situation" in public schools that are "overcrowded and lacking human and material resources". A discontent that, if negotiations between unions and the administration do not prevent it, could lead to an indefinite strike at the end of May.

Concluding a week of nationwide strikes, Teachers have blocked the Ronda de Dalt ring road at several points this morningShortly before 7:00 a.m., approximately 400 people blocked traffic in both directions in Santa Coloma de Gramenet, just before the La Trinitat interchange. Later, about 100 protesters blocked the same road near Vall d'Hebron Hospital, followed by another blockade on the B-20 highway near Finestrelles, in Esplu. This action is a response to the agreement the government reached two weeks ago with the CCOO and UGT unions, presented as a "national pact," but which did not receive the support of Ustec, the largest union in the education sector, or the Secondary School Teachers' Union, the largest union in secondary schools.

The Catalan Railways (FGC) transported over one hundred million passengers last year, a record figure, with a punctuality rate exceeding 99% on all lines and overall user satisfaction. Anyone who doubts these figures need only ask the passengers. They'll surely tell you that the lines connecting Sabadell and Terrassa with Barcelona, ​​and vice versa (60,000 people commute to work in Sant Cugat every day, though not all by train), are packed early in the morning, and that beyond Sant Cugat, it's a real squeeze to board the carriages, but that the service is exceptionally punctual. For all these reasons, I listened with interest to the arguments given by José Javier Bleda, the regional railway secretary for the Semaf union, to justify the strike that began yesterday and will continue next week. In an interview on Radio 4, Mr. Bleda spoke of "latent risks," such as "in certain areas of the network, trains begin to skid, preventing the driver from braking where they want"; that, ultimately, "many general issues have specific underlying problems"; that they have been reporting everything; that the reports have been ignored; and that patience has its limits.

Nine Tuesdays of difficulties in rail mobility, this time also affecting Ferrocarrils de la Generalitat de Catalunya (FGC). The Catalan train operator faces the first of the five days of strikewhich has called on the Semaf union to strike on February 24th and 25th and March 2nd, 3rd, and 4th to demand greater safety on the service.

The Catalan government already has several proposals on the table to improve the working conditions of teachers, but has not yet presented them to the unions. With less than 24 hours to go before the teachers' strike called jointly by all the sector's unions, sources from the Department of Education insist that the government "remains at the negotiating table and is committed to reaching agreements to improve the working conditions of teachers and educational support staff." Although last week's meeting between unions and the department to continue negotiations was canceled, the government maintains that it has prepared a proposal to improve working conditions "which it hopes to begin discussing at the sectoral bargaining table." Furthermore, the same sources assert that the department "already has a proposal ready" to improve the specific supplement—the remuneration given for the particular conditions of the job, such as technical difficulty, level of dedication, responsibility, incompatibility, or hazardous nature. According to the Department of Education, which has not specified exactly what the improvement will entail, this is one of the measures they believe "can respond to the demands of the educational community and incorporates all the requests from previous meetings." They also assert that the proposal "aims to address the historical underfunding of the Educational Support Staff (PAE)." Aside from salary aspects, the Government's proposal also includes a reduction in student-teacher ratios and progress in streamlining bureaucracy, as well as more resources for inclusive education and recognition of the different roles of each teacher. However, the proposal, which the Government has reportedly finalized, will be contingent on the executive's budget situation, as the current budget remains extended. USTEC denounces "abusive" minimum service requirements.

On Monday night, the Department of Business and Labor sent the unions the minimum services required for Wednesday's strike in schools and institutes. The limits set by the Catalan government are one teacher for every three classrooms in preschool, primary, and secondary education, and 33% of the staff in daycare centers. For special education centers, at least 50% of the staff must be working. In addition, all centers must have at least one member of the management team present. According to USTEC, "these minimum services are clearly excessive and reflect an attempt to limit and render meaningless the fundamental right to strike." They denounce that, according to their calculations, in many small schools and rural schools, "these minimums could completely neutralize the mobilization, without guaranteeing essential rights."

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Excluding the pandemic, the rail crisis is, due to its magnitude and duration, one of the most serious infrastructural—and by extension, economic and social—episodes that Catalonia has experienced in recent years. After decades of neglect, it will take time and money to modernize the commuter rail network, and it will take even more to regain the trust of users and citizens as a whole. A systemic failure like this only deepens political disaffection and puts the institutional system in a precarious position, currently giving wings to anti-establishment parties of the populist far right. In this sense, it is actually worrying that Saturday's demonstrations did not have a massive turnout: it means that people don't really believe in a possible solution and it also means that the protest will be channeled through other false and more unpredictable avenues.

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The train drivers and the rest of the Renfe and Adif workersThe strike was called off at noon The train strike that began this Monday has been called off, according to Semaf General Secretary Diego Martín, after another meeting with the Ministry of Transport. Hours later, the railway unions explained that they had reached an agreement with the Spanish government to call off the strike. This agreement includes increased investment in track and train maintenance, improved safety measures, and strengthened mechanisms to ensure compliance, as Martín explained. Thus, the planned strikes for Tuesday and Wednesday have been suspended. This Tuesday, eight commuter rail lines—R1, R3, R4, R7, R8, RG1, R15, and RL4—continue to experience service disruptions, and alternative bus services have been arranged to cover their routes. The agreement reached by the unions Semaf, CCOO, and UGT—but not CGT, which is maintaining the strike—with the Spanish government is based on improved investment in infrastructure and working conditions in the sector. "It's a historic agreement for the railway," the union leader told the media. The general secretary of Semaf explained that the more than 25-page national agreement will "double" investment in rail and should establish "clear limits and responsibilities" for the main players in the sector. In fact, the largest union confirmed that they are calling off the strike because they have achieved "all the demands" they had made. Among the main measures included in the agreement is the classification of breaks of less than 45 minutes taken by train drivers as "driving time." Regarding Adif, the agreement establishes "fixed and permanent" regular meetings with workers and a 77% increase in maintenance spending by 2030, reaching the budgeted 1.179 billion euros. Regarding high-speed rail, spending will increase by 44%, rising from €435.6 million last year to €629 million. As for staffing, an agreement has been reached to create 1,200 additional contracts for maintenance and driving, among other roles, at Renfe, and 2,400 additional positions at Adif over a four-year period. Furthermore, the agreement, which has helped to demobilize the sector, includes the creation of a working group to develop a common protocol for responding to weather alerts and the insourcing of maintenance for some trains—including those used in Tarragona and Portbou—and for any new trains that are put out to tender. The agreement also highlights the fact that a committee must be established within a maximum of one month to harmonize and coordinate railway risk management actions, that a working group must be created with Adif to monitor the implementation and removal of temporary speed restrictions (TSRs), and that a document regulating notifications must be drafted by the workers.

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The week begins under the shadow of two pieces of news, one good and one bad. The bad one? Train drivers' strikeThe good news? The AP-7 motorway reopened this morning after being closed for three weeks. All three lanes between Martorell and Gelida are now open in the direction of Tarragona.

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"Now it turns out that more than 400 points on the railway network need to be checked. And if we do nothing and don't complain, we'll just keep running as if nothing's wrong and see if another tragedy doesn't happen? That can't be. We want a structural reform and greater safety," argue sources from Semaf, the largest train drivers' union. "We thought we knew the most complicated areas, and we already thought there were many, but they weren't all of them. But we see the most serious problems: crooked trees, potholes... When you go through a tunnel, unless a piece falls, you don't know if everything is okay or not," argues Francisco Cárdenas, a train driver with more than four years of experience.

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