Alberto Núñez Feijóo and the UGT union staged this Monday the cordiality within the disagreement that must be maintained as a guide to relations between the main opposition party and one of the two major Spanish unions. The president of the PP broke with a tradition of the leaders of his party and participated in the congress that the union is organizing in Barcelona, an opportunity that Feijóo and the UGT took advantage of to formulate mutual demands.
After detailing some of the principles with a stronger social dimension that are part of Feijóo’s electoral program, the PP leader called on the union delegates present to support his conciliation law, now blocked in Congress.
“I believe that workers must extend paternity and maternity leave to 20 weeks, we need nursery schools throughout Spain and greater work flexibility, both a bank of hours and a working day flexible”, defended Feijóo, as the main attractions of his proposal. , without however mentioning some of the aspects most criticized by social agents.
The general secretary of the UGT of Catalonia, Camil Ros, who is also president of the confederal congress, took advantage of the carpet laid by Feijóo to demand his return. “It would be good if, in the next half-year, a vote in favor or even an abstention in favor of reducing working hours did not harm us,” he suggested to applause.
Mutual demands could represent a contradiction, because if the PP proposal proposes a reduction of the working week to four days, this will not lead to a reduction in the weekly working time, which would remain at 40. It is therefore a question a vision that contradicts that of the UGT, which is currently negotiating for the government to approve the 37.5 hours per week.
Although Feijóo assured that he did not want to play “far from home”, the president of the PP used humor to conquer a difficult audience. “As the majority of you did not vote for me, I cannot be president of the government, so I met with Pepe Álvarez but I have not yet managed to agree on anything with him,” Feijóo joked.
This joke, however, allowed the opposition leader to show his closeness with Álvarez, the secretary general who will revalidate his mandate during this congress. Álvarez and Feijóo have shown themselves willing to explore agreements, now and after a possible change of government.
The leader of the PP avoided directly criticizing the government of Pedro Sánchez – a vice-president of the Executive like Yolanda Díaz was present in the auditorium – but he took the opportunity to highlight the issues with which he stands out of the current economic context. and labor policy.
“Economic triumphalism is a mistake that we will all pay for,” he said, before highlighting the loss of workers’ purchasing power due to inflation since taxes have not been reduced, as well as the fear of generations of young people. live worse than their parents. Feijóo also defended the revaluation of pensions and criticized, without citing it, the Muface crisis, which he interpreted as “endangering public health”.
After claiming a modest family origin and a relationship of several years with the unions – Feijóo revealed that he became a union delegate, but not for the UGT but in an independent candidacy – the opposition leader reaffirmed his promise to maintain as much respect as possible for social dialogue if it reaches the Government. “My goal is to defend the general interest,” he said.
Feijóo participated in the 44th Confederal Congress of the UGT, becoming the first opposition leader to participate in a congress of the main Spanish union. Initially, the objective of the PP leader was to seek accomplices for his proposed conciliation law, a battery of measures which, among other things, would make it possible to reduce the working week, but not the hours actually worked. Despite the difference in the proposals, the union’s general secretary, Pepe Álvarez, maintained contacts with Feijóo last month to reconcile positions.
