The counselor of the Presidency, Isabel Urrutia (PP), has defended that the sit-in of the works council of the Government of Cantabria at the Peña Herbosa headquarters to pressure in the negotiation of the new collective agreement "was not necessary" and has rejected that her department had paralyzed the process, which, as she has emphasized, is "very advanced."
"There was no need to unblock because nothing was blocked," Urrutia reiterated during the first Plenary of the Parliament of the new political course, where she recalled that "one cannot speak of blockage when there have been 21 meetings of the negotiating commission."
In this line, she pointed out that there are "very few things" left to close an agreement and explained that the Administration has been regularly calling the meetings, setting as a reference every week —especially Tuesdays— and that "never, and when I say never I mean never," has any of those meetings been abandoned "unilaterally," as the unions had denounced.
Moreover, she pointed out that "one cannot speak of blockage" when there is already an agreement from the Council of Government that establishes the amounts starting from 2024 and when she herself communicated to the trade union organizations on August 28 that, "once their proposals have been studied and the workers' assemblies have been completed," the meetings would be resumed, setting the date for September 10.
Regarding the sit-in, the counselor, questioned in the hemicycle by both PSOE and Vox, emphasized that it is up to the works council to explain the reasons for that pressure measure. "I am very clear about it, it was not necessary," she stressed.
"Great advance" in the negotiation and investment commitment
The head of the Presidency has highlighted that there has been "a great advance" in the conversations and has reiterated the commitment of the regional Executive to "invest" in its labor personnel because, she stated, "it is fair."
In this context, she has focused on the increase to five million allocated to "improve" their working and salary conditions, an amount she announced last Thursday, and lamented that she has not yet received a concrete response to that economic proposal.
"For that, there has to be a real negotiation, which exists on the part of this Government. There has to be a loyal negotiation, which exists on the part of this Government," Urrutia emphasized, also referring to other agreements reached by the Executive with teachers and healthcare workers.
Likewise, he has denied that there are delays attributable to the Administration in the development of the conversations, "categorically no," and has specified that "what there have been are problems of legitimization of the social part of the negotiating commission," about whose "details," he has advanced, "for the moment" he will not offer more information.
To close his intervention, he has demanded "loyalty" when negotiating and has reiterated that the confinement "categorically was not necessary." "The first ones who know it are those who were confined. With this Government, those pressure measures do not work and we have demonstrated it," he has emphasized, contrasting it with the fact that what does work is "the work and the desire to work."
In this sense, the counselor has assured that the Executive "is going to negotiate to exhaustion." "We are going to sit at the table until we reach that agreement, with labor, salary, organizational conditions, but with loyalty between the parties," he has indicated.
Finally, he has posed to the deputies the question of "can you imagine (the deputies) losing five million euros for the labor workers of this autonomous community?" "I cannot," he has responded, and has defended that he cannot assume that this happens due to "the blockade that others are doing," he has concluded.