The secretary general of the UGT, Pepe Álvarez, thanked this Monday the leader of the PP, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, for his “commitment” to supporting the latest pension reform. elDiario.es published this decision of the Popular Party in October, although later the party leadership clarified that there was no “categorical response” to the party’s final position.
The union leader had a few words for the leader of the PP, seated in the front row among the participants in the 44th Confederal Congress of the UGT, during which Pepe Álvarez should be reappointed as head of the union for a third and final term. . “I want to thank the PP because, beyond other issues related to this topic, it is committed to effectively supporting the latest agreement on pensions,” said Álvarez.
The latest agreement on pensions, signed in September by Pedro Sánchez and the social agents of Moncloa, includes several measures that encourage the compatibility of retirement with work, such as the advancement of access to partial retirement, the recognition of more rights for succession contracts and encourages voluntary postponement of retirement, through an increase in incentives for deferred retirement, among other measures.
elDiario.es again questioned the Popular Party about this support for the latest pension reform, but the party did not want to confirm or deny it.
In October, after Feijóo’s meetings with the leaders of the CCOO and UGT unions, sources in the PP leadership explained that the party intended to support the latest pension reform agreed between the government, unions and employers within the framework of social dialogue. “arrives clean”. In other words, without modifications.
Key to the relief contract
Pepe Álvarez thanked the PP leader for this “commitment” to supporting the latest pension reform, recalling that regulation is very important for the union. For several reasons, but above all he highlighted the conditions that he sets for the “relief contract”, which give legal certainty to this formula in the manufacturing industry, which presents more advantageous conditions and which expires on 31 December.
It is for this reason that the leader of the PP urged the government to approve the legislation now so that it can be submitted to Congress for a vote and finally appear in the Official State Gazette (BOE).
Alberto Núñez Feijóo, who spoke at the union’s Confederal Congress to talk about his conciliation law, did not mention this future vote in his speech. “I renew my commitment to the growth of pensions and I add that I think that the Spanish lack sufficient information about their future. And that worries me. There is no room for error, as Serrat would say: the old people are put aside after having served us well,” he declared on this subject.
In this sense, Pepe Álvarez asked not to raise fears about the future of pensions, of which he maintained the benefits of private plans. The leader of the UGT defended the future and sustainability of the public system, as well as its revaluation according to the CPI, thanks to the reforms undertaken with the coalition government, after negotiation in the social dialogue.
Feijóo’s presence at the internal congress of the UGT left another striking scene, with the questioning of the second vice-president and Minister of Labor, Yolanda Díaz, on the position of the PP regarding the reduction of working hours. “Are you going to do the same thing with the work day as with labor reform?” Díaz asked him from the stage, to the applause of the audience.
