He meat sector avoid a strike of its workers to the extreme by reaching an agreement with the unions to achieve salary increasesas OKDIARIO learned. Thus, the salaries of employees in the meat industry will be increased by 3% during the two years of validity of the new agreement, i.e. 2024 and 2025. In addition, companies dedicated to this activity will put in place a reduction of working hours 12 hours per year.
The agreement was reached after a meeting which lasted more than 17 hours and at which a mediator was to be present. On the one hand, there were the employers’ associations Anice, Fecic, Agemcex, Anafric and Anagrasa. On the other, there were the CCOO, UGT and Figa unions.
The two parties managed to reach a prior agreement deactivate the strike call. The aforementioned unions planned to carry out a strike on December 4 and 5.
This prior agreement signed by the representatives of workers and employers must however be countersigned by the governing bodies companies and trade unions.
This ratification of those responsible must be carried out before the next November 30Thus, workers will know for sure next week whether the wage increase and the reduction in working hours are finally implemented in the meat sector.
The meat sector will increase wages
The signed agreement will be applied retroactively to January 1, 2024 and will end on December 31, 2025. As the employers explain in a press release, “for the year 2024, it refers to the agreement aimed at increasing the 3% of the salary Agreement for employment and collective bargaining (ANC), which will be applied to the final tables for the year 2023 and a salary review clause for CPI gapslimited to 1% and without retroactive effect.
“For the year 2025the provisions of the ANC have also been agreed and the increase will be 3%, with the same clause of salary review due to a deviation from the CPI, limited to 1% and without retroactive effect”, explain those responsible.
Some meat steaks.
Concerning the working day, “on January 1, 2025, it will last 1,748 hours (this would mean a 12 hours discount the current day, in the annual calculation)”, according to the employers’ associations.
“The signing of this pre-agreement will allow us to clarify important unknowns for the future of the sector and its workers and to contribute stability to the projects of companies and their models», Explain the professional organizations. More than 110,000 workers They will benefit from this measure, because meat is “one of the most important industrial sectors in our country”.
Importance of the industry
The Spanish meat sector, “made up of more than three thousand companies, mostly SMEsrepresents 2.72% of the Spanish GDP27.3% of the GDP of the food industry and 4.53% of the total turnover of Spanish industry”, explain the associations.
“The meat sector is one of the pillars of the Spanish economy,” say the professional associations.
“With a turnoverin 2023, of 33.218 million euros and exports for a total value of 10.583 million euros, the meat sector is one of the pillars of the Spanish economy“, especially in rural areas, being one of the main protagonists of the depopulation challenge”, they say.
In these circumstances, avoiding a strike and satisfying workers is essential to normalize a situation that can cause problems for the entire Spanish economy. Spain is currently at the forefront in the production of porkas data from the statistical portal shows Eurostat.
According to the same portal, Spain represented approximately one a quarter of pig populations (25.4%) and sheep (23.6%) of the European Union in 2023, while Greece had a similar share of the EU goat population (25.8%) and France a slightly lower participation (22.8%) from the cattle population.
