“Embarrassing”, “provocative” and “genuine joke”. This is how the CCOO and UGT unions describe the salary proposal presented by employers in the sugar and yeast industry during the negotiation of the sectoral collective agreement, which even involves “salary reductions in the years to come,” says Marco Antonio Pérez, responsible for the CCOO sector. The unions announced an indefinite strike which would begin in the second half of October.
The union centers are therefore calling for the “2,000 workers” in the sector to be stopped indefinitely, explains Pérez, in a mobilization that still has no precise date, but which will coincide with the beet campaign. “It’s a strong campaign, which lasts around eight to ten weeks,” says the union leader.
CCOO and UGT explain that on October 2 there was a meeting to negotiate the collective agreement. “Faced with the intransigence of the employers’ associations in the face of the just demands of the workers, and taking into account the latest proposal from the employers’ associations which the unions consider to be a real lack of respect and a step backwards in the steps taken, the sectoral unions of UGT and CCOO, as well as “the collective agreement negotiating committee, have unanimously decided to call a strike,” they underline in a press release.
Battle for salary recovery
The main demands of workers in the sector are to “recover a significant part of the loss of purchasing power from the previous agreement – around 10% – and to guarantee with a wage guarantee clause that this situation will not happen again », they say. explain CCOO and UGT.
Faced with opposition from employers’ associations to the inclusion of a salary review clause, despite the recommendations to this effect in the major salary pact signed in May last year, the unions organized demonstrations in September and organized rallies in front of ACOR and AB. Azucarera with a “resounding success” in terms of assistance, underline the workers’ centers.
“On September 15, the unions received an email from the employers’ associations of the sector in which they expressed their willingness to resume conversations in order to reach a good agreement, and they proposed a new meeting to be held on October 2”, for which led to the cancellation of the rest of the planned demonstrations as a “proof of goodwill”.
However, CCOO and UGT denounce that “the employers’ associations presented to the negotiating commission an embarrassing and provocative proposal with worse conditions than those discussed so far. A real joke.
Proposal with “salary cuts”
The employers’ organizations presented for the first time a salary review clause, but the workers’ confederations warn that “this implies a deflation of the tables from December 31, 2026”. “It is an unfair and shameful clause, it even implies that their salaries would even be lower than what had been agreed once the agreement was over. This is a question that we are not going to allow,” criticizes Marco Antonio Pérez.
CCOO and UGT insist that a new collective agreement without a salary review clause and without payment compensating for losses in purchasing power from the previous agreement is “unaffordable and unacceptable, while companies continue to maintain their accounts results with significant benefits.
It is for this reason that they registered the vote with a call for a strike within SIMA (mediation body), which will call them next week to try to mediate in the conflict. If there is no progress, workers will be called for an indefinite strike.
“At the UGT and CCOO, we understand that avoiding an indefinite strike in the sugar and yeast industry sector only depends on the employers. We demand the same responsibility that we, workers, have demonstrated in complex situations in companies. It is time for companies to distribute part of their economic results to workers in the sector,” conclude the unions.
