Comisiones Obreras (CC.OO.) and the Unión General de Trabajadores (UGT) have urged citizens this Friday to join the mobilizations called throughout the national territory in response to the decision of the Congress of Deputies not to validate the two housing decrees recently approved by the Council of Ministers.
"The vote of Congress places the country in a situation of political blockage and fuels a social outrage of enormous magnitude. In light of this, the appropriate response is mobilization," the unions have stated through a joint statement.
The two organizations have announced that they will gather their highest governing bodies in the coming days to analyze the political implications of the 'no' from the Lower House and define how to articulate a "strategy for unity of trade union action and convergence" with social movements, neighborhood associations, tenant collectives, and other trade union organizations.
On the other hand, CC.OO. and UGT have criticized that the opposing votes from PP, Junts, Vox, and UPyN have thwarted the validation of initiatives that, as they recall, "did not alone resolve the crisis, but were necessary and urgent."
Both central organizations have warned that the increase in housing costs has become the "main factor of impoverishment and inequality in Spain," as they understand that it violates Article 47 of the Constitution and effectively nullifies the wage increases agreed upon in collective agreements, as well as the improvements in the interprofessional minimum wage (SMI).
"Our country is growing like never before, but its extractive economic model of rents does not allow the wealth generated to be distributed equitably. The large corporate profits are not sufficiently transferred to salaries, while the rise in prices weighs down the purchasing power of millions of working people," the trade union organizations have reasoned in their statement.