Fernández Sevilla had to leave the UGT Andalucía “politically” on November 29, 2013, eleven years ago. This is what Manuel Pastrana’s replacement admitted to this newspaper when writing his letter of resignation to the historic Cándido Méndez. The pressure, barely six months after coming to power, outweighed its desire to be “the last bastion” of workers with Rajoy installed in La Moncloa. At that time, we were starting to talk about possible fraud and false invoices attributed to the Council, a case which has just sentenced him to three years in prison and a fine of 50 million euros, along with three other former union leaders, at the expense of resources before the Supreme Court. The first has already been announced by the UGT, to which the judges hold subsidiary responsibility for compensation of more than 40 million euros because, according to them, its “competence” “derived in this case in a more obvious manner to be the beneficiary.” subsidies and amounts defrauded.”
Just twenty days after the departure of Fernández Sevilla, on the orders of Judge Mercedes Alaya, fifty agents of the Central Operational Unit of the Civil Guard searched the regional headquarters of the UGT which, according to the Seville court, had been detained for years “one. means of financing to cover the union’s own structural expenses at the expense of public funds. The past always comes back, even if the one who had to take care of this bull, Carmen Castilla, asked to leave him “behind” as soon as she took the reins of the union, which defended on Wednesday not having been convicted for “any crime”.
In the second half of 2013, the ERE affair had already been judicially settled. Just months before the resignation of the highest leader of the UGT in Andalusia, Alaya called for the indictment of former presidents Chaves and Griñán in a decision made public to the press by the Andalusian PP just as the new government was taking office. functions. Susana Díaz (subsequently annulled by the Court). The shadow of corruption, with the socialist administration and the UGT in the legal shootings (both in the hands of the judge), animated the ranks of the PP opposition. “One more photo from the past era of PSOE governments,” summarized the presidential advisor this Wednesday, when asked about the Court’s judgment.
Alaya, isolated
A few months later, in March 2014, the court ordered Alaya to stop investigating the UGT invoices because they were not related to the ERE case. The president of the Court of Instruction number 6 at the time was responsible for investigating the subsidies granted by the Council through the Directorate General of Employment, even if it is the Court of Instruction number 9 who was in reality responsible for investigating union fraud, according to the now known decision.
The Board of Directors of Susana Díaz, in parallel and with the ERE at its head, began the arduous work of reviewing all the subsidies granted for employment courses since 2007 and concluded that there were errors of justification in most of the subsidies granted to the UGT-A between 2008. and 2011, requesting the reinstatement of a percentage of each to the union. The judgment mentions this: “The Andalusian Government cannot be ordered to pay costs as requested by the UGT-A defense, since its declaration of responsibility must be declared in this procedure without prejudice to the fact that it has concluded an agreement for payment. possible reimbursements to which she may be ordered before the litigation court,” specify the judges.
Suppliers, arrested and acquitted
Already in June 2014, a second operation took place which resulted in the arrest of 14 people (five in Madrid, one in Jaén, seven in Seville and one in Gran Canaria), mostly company directors, accused to be necessary collaborators for having prepared accounts. . ‘b’ to receive subsidies for training in collusion with UGT employees and who have now been acquitted.
This police operation was based on the documentation seized and on the interrogations carried out a week before the European elections on the orders of judge Mercedes Alaya. The union’s lawyers have repeatedly stated that Alaya had attempted to monopolize major files and that it had done so, in the case of the UGT-A, under “unjustified” summary secrecy, accompanied by a “parallel trial” in certain cases. .media.
Among those arrested was the former treasurer of the UGT-A, Federico Fresneda, now convicted and whom the union’s Public Services Federation named as responsible for the accounts when the affair came to light last fall . “It is not fair that Paco and Manolo (Fernández Sevilla and Pastrana) pay for the responsibility of others and that they take away the work of the last 10 or 12 years of this union,” he lamented on the day of the resignation of Fernández Sevilla. . the historic Antonio Tirado at elDiario.es Andalucía.
“Regarding the former leaders of the union who have been convicted, on an individual level, we consider that it will be their lawyers who will have to determine the presentation of the corresponding appeals,” said the UGT Andalucía in a brief statement in reaction to the Court decision according to which the union, repeating the classic dictum, “respects but does not share” concerning “their arguments and conclusions”.
Other cases with better news for the UGT
This is not the only judicial reversal linked to the UGT in recent years. In April 2023, the Criminal Court number 15 of Seville resolved the finality of the sentence also pronounced by the court against the former worker of the UGT Andalucía, Roberto Macías, sentenced in November 2022 to one year in prison for the crime of discovery and revelation of secrets. for disclosing to the media “reserved and sensitive information” about the union’s so-called “sham invoices” plot, and that He testified at the trial that resulted in the now known sentence.
This court sentenced Macías to two years in prison, although it reduced his sentence by half due to unjustified delays in the judicial process that began in 2013. It is precisely this delay which caused, according to the three magistrates, the Seventh Section, including Mercedes Alaya, who ordered this first procedure, as has already been said, there has been no appeal in cassation, since Law 41/2015, of 5 October, amending the Code of Criminal Procedure, authorizes this type of appeal against convictions pronounced on appeal but applicable to procedures initiated after its entry into force.
In October 2021, the Court of Instruction number 9 of Seville (which led the invoices case) closed the complaint of the Seville Prosecutor’s Office against the former leaders of the CCOO and UGT unions of Andalusia, to which they assigned a alleged crime of embezzlement for not returning to the Andalusian Government the 6.7 million euros collected from the management of leisure residences.
