The CRTVG’s indefinite strike goes up a notch with the call, on Sunday, December 1, for a “major demonstration” during which workers “call on all Galician citizens to defend the public media.” The decision, ratified by the assemblies held this Tuesday, was made public the next day, on the seventeenth day of the partial strike which, once again, prevented the distribution of the morning magazine. O Thermometer.
Meanwhile, according to the strike committee, “far from defusing” the situation, the company’s management “is embarking on repressive maneuvers to deactivate” the mobilization through “abuse of power and fear.” The last example they tell, the appearance of a technician from an external company to measure the decibel volume of the megaphone with which they announce the start of the strike. The goal, they say, was to “gather evidence to open a disciplinary case” against the committee members.
Despite this, the program O Thermometer remains the most effective working temperature gauge at CRTVG. This co-production, which replaced the historic morning magazine at the start of the season To the magazinewas the trigger for a strike against content outsourcing which is in its sixth week with management and union positions increasingly distant.
For example, in addition to the call to demonstrate, since Monday, the 90-minute partial strikes which had reduced the broadcast of O Thermometer to one hour on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays was extended by an additional 45 minutes, resulting in the program disappearing completely on two occasions.
The management of the CRTVG – which claims to limit itself to “enforcing the right to work that workers massively want to exercise” – continues to minimize the follow-up to the appeal and claims a “massive rejection” of the staff in the conflict, since “the supported data” leaves support “between 10% and 15%”.
However, for the committee, in such a prolonged conflict – and which, therefore, causes a great loss of income for those who support it – the important thing is not control, but the rotation which makes it possible to organize the rallies at the gate of the San Marcos headquarters – events attended by personalities from the cultural and political world and the secretary of the European Federation of Journalists herself – while the broadcast of O Thermometer; an objective which, partially or totally, was achieved on each day of mobilization.
Union leaders, better one at a time
Attempts to reconcile positions have so far not been successful. The CRTVG insists on the fact that the decision to replace To the magazine –a program carried out exclusively with its own resources for more than twenty years– by O Thermometera similar but co-produced format – the company refuses to be defined as “outsourcing” – is purely “organizational, productive and strategic” and “does not affect the labor rights” of workers.
The general director of the company, Alfonso Sánchez Izquierdo, rejected the request for a meeting addressed to him by the general secretaries of the three most representative unions in Galicia – CIG, UGT and CCOO – as well as that of the majority central in public media. – CUT – to “deal with the conflict situation”.
The four union leaders – in an unprecedented joint statement – considered that this refusal demonstrated the “lack of negotiating spirit” of Sánchez Izquierdo in the face of a conflict “generated by company management which aims to support the manipulation of information, the privatization of production and the dismantling of the public audiovisual communications service.
The refusal of the general director was one of the reasons given by the strike committee to “harden” the conflict, by increasing the duration of the strikes which, from December 1, will no longer be every other day but will become daily. The workers say Izquierdo “initially” expressed his intention to accept the meeting, which he then rejected “for unknown reasons.”
The version proposed by the management of the CRTVG is different and assures that it is “false” that the meeting was scheduled. What took place were individual telephone conversations between Sánchez Izquierdo and the four secretaries. These “wide and cordial” discussions did not help the company move forward. Maintains that the deliverance of O Thermometer “This does not concern matters that directly affect staff”, as it does not imply changes in their conditions nor “any reduction in staff, remuneration rights or any other type”. This is the same reason they gave for rejecting labor mediation.
In their statement, the four secretaries general “radically” disagreed with this argument because they consider that the privatization of content production “negatively affects the volume of public employment” which, during the mandate of Sánchez Izquierdo, has suffered “a very significant reduction”. “precarious working conditions” for workers.
The law and popular legislative initiative
The appearance of O Thermometer It was the straw needed to overflow the boiling pot that has been boiling for years – this Friday the Defende a Galega platform will reach the black venerae number 339–, is the CRTVG. Eternally accused of acting as the media arm of the Xunta and the PP, with penalties that punish the repression of unruly workers, a bill that will increase political control over the company is about to be submitted to Parliament . A text which above all seeks a formula to take over from the CEO, whose position has been extended “temporarily” since 2016 and who has already expressed his intention to leave his position on several occasions. Meanwhile, Izquierdo, 75, and eight other members of his management are being sued for alleged workplace harassment of a Radio Galega employee.
The formula used to avoid the lack of consensus in the nomination of his successor will be to lower it from qualified majority to absolute majority, which the PP has in the Autonomous Chamber. This is the same method that RTVE will use to appoint its advisors and that the PP criticized so much in Madrid. At the same time, the popular legislative initiative Let’s free Galega!promoted by 40 entities in response to the new law, is collecting signatures after being admitted for processing by the Parliament Office.
Letter to the President of Parliament
And in the middle of all these fronts, Sánchez Izquierdo has taken a step that the main opposition force, the BNG, considers “extremely serious”. The nationalists launched a campaign, through social networks and street advertisements, under the slogan Against manipulation! We want TVG and Radio Galega and not TelePP and Radio PP. The general director’s response was to denounce him in a letter sent to the president of the Parliament of Galicia, the popular Miguel Santalices.
In his letter, Izquierdo considers this “action with social impact” “unjust”, because it “may disrupt the behavior” of Galicians “in their free exercise of media choice”. “The messages are value judgments which harm the management operations” of the CRTVG “undermining its public service capacities,” he writes.
This letter marked the last appearance of the director general at the Autonomous Chamber. He came to talk about the company’s budgets for 2025, but the Bloc did not want to ignore this fact. “Don’t you realize the consequences this letter can have and how dangerous it is for a democratic system like ours? “Who are you or Mr. Santalices to tell the BNG what campaigns it can or cannot run?” asked Representative Iago Suárez without hiding his anger. “After 16 years at the head of the CRTVG, you will be remembered for this letter. “It is not enough to manipulate, because now they also want to silence the BNG.”
After this appearance – during which Izquierdo said the movement was “very measured and thoughtful” – and to questions from elDiario.es, the CRTVG responded that it was not seeking to “respond” to any political group, but that the general director had “seen the obligation” to go to Santalices to “inform him of the existence of an anti-competitive paid advertising campaign developed by a parliamentary group”. As Suárez recalled, it is the party and not the group that launches the campaign. When the matter was transferred to the Presidency of Parliament, a spokesperson assured that the institution “limited itself” to registering the letter so that all groups in the chamber were aware of its existence.
