The general secretary of the General Union of Workers (UGT), Pepe Álvarez, has reiterated that "of course not" ruling out the call for a general strike, "nor any hypothesis," after holding a meeting with the Tenants' Union. His objective, he has emphasized, is to promote a "day of struggle" that "leads to improvements for workers."
"I believe that what is important is that at this moment we can create a platform that adds demands and allows us to go to a mobilization, that we call it and carry it out," the union leader pointed out in an interview this Friday on 'Hora 25' of Cadena Ser, reported by Europa Press.
Although he has not specified whether he would expressly lean towards a general strike, he has indicated that they are "evaluating" the different alternatives and has shown himself "in favor" of taking advantage of what he considers a "great moment" for social mobilization. However, he has pointed out that the housing problem "is not the same in all autonomous communities," differentiating the situation of rural areas from that of large cities.
"We are organizations that have hundreds of thousands of delegates in companies who are the ones who can activate a general strike," Álvarez has claimed. At the same time, he has stressed that they are "working" to "see to what extent we give a united response that has to be from the two union organizations," referring to Comisiones Obreras (CCOO), which has also not ruled out a possible general strike.
In parallel, he has evaluated the two housing decrees rejected this Friday in the Congress of Deputies with the votes of the Popular Party, Vox, and Junts, assuring that they "are far from solving" the "serious housing problem." However, he has particularly criticized the PP for not wanting to address this crisis "from the autonomous communities" and "the vast majority of municipalities."
"They have stopped everything that has to do with the construction of housing. They have the competencies, they have resources, they have the possibility to develop it. They have sabotaged the land law in the Congress of Deputies that has prevented housing plans from being developed," the general secretary of UGT has criticized, accusing the 'popular' of blocking the necessary initiatives.
In the final stretch of his intervention, Álvarez has also directed his reproaches at the leader of the PP, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, and has concluded his message with a harsh statement: "Listening to Mr. Feijóo talk about the illnesses and the absences of the workers of our country is nauseating."