The employees of Airbus have gathered this Saturday in Madrid to express their rejection of the pre-agreement reached with the company and to demand a "real" negotiation that allows for the guarantee, among other aspects, of the recovery of purchasing power linked to the actual CPI.
During the march between Plaza de Colón and the headquarters of the Ministry of Industry, spokespeople from CGT and ÚTIL have warned that the pact still leaves "many things up in the air" and have criticized that it was closed without the involvement of all the trade union organizations or an effective negotiation with the strike committee.
The protest has been called by the General Confederation of Labor (CGT), with the support of the ÚTIL union, and has continued despite the pause of the indefinite strike and the pre-agreement signed between the company and several trade unions.
With this mobilization, the unions have staged their disagreement with the measures proposed to resolve the conflict, including a recovery of purchasing power of 7.95% until 2029 and the continuity of the current teleworking model.
The representative of CGT, Juan Pedro Torres, has stated that the pre-agreement "falls short" and has emphasized that it leaves "many things up in the air," especially regarding the recovery of the actual CPI and the workload for Cádiz. In his view, the planned referendum aims to "legitimize this process" despite the fact that the strike committee has not participated in a direct negotiation with the company.
Torres has highlighted as a positive element that "in the end we have managed to set the CPI after more than two agreements without the large organizations signing it," although he has warned that it will only be an advance "if in the end they do not ruin it in a later text."
On the other hand, the representative of ÚTIL, Marc Vidal, has indicated that the pre-agreement leaves out several of their demands, including those affecting the workers of the Bromo Project and salary conditions.
In this line, the spokesperson for ÚTIL has criticized the so-called "April effect," which would imply that remuneration would start to be counted from April instead of January and that, in his opinion, would mean "a salary loss for all workers."
UGT has ultimately not joined the demonstration, according to sources from the union itself, who have explained that the organization maintains a "neutral" stance regarding this call.
The union has specified that the call for mobilization was made on September 4, before the proposal from the Ministry of Industry was known to attempt to unblock the conflict and before the strike committee decided to temporarily suspend the protest on September 8.
Awaiting the referendum
The unions present in the Airbus strike committee agreed to suspend the indefinite strike that began on August 25 starting September 9, despite the fact that the workforce had voted by a very narrow margin in favor of maintaining it.
In the overall centers, 51.23% of the workers who participated in the assembly opted to continue with the strikes, compared to 48.7% who leaned towards pausing them, a difference of 67 votes.
The pre-agreement between Airbus and several union organizations was finalized on September 4 with the mediation of the Ministry of Industry and Tourism.
The proposal is expected to be submitted throughout this month of September to a binding referendum among the Airbus workforce in Spain.