The general secretary of UGT, Pepe Álvarez, considers it "reasonable" that the general strike called due to the housing crisis takes place in November, although he has made it clear that it will not overlap with the electoral campaign.
In an interview on 'Hora 25' of Cadena Ser, Álvarez emphasized that the 24-hour strike promoted by UGT and CCOO will not take place during the campaign for the general elections set by the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, for November 29. "The reasonable thing is that it be in the month of November, before the campaign starts," he declared.
Even so, the union leader has avoided specifying the exact day of the general strike. "It is without a date because we have to leave some things to discuss and agree on in a matter where there will be so many actors," he explained, pointing out that on Tuesday the unions will continue "refining" the proposal with the other involved organizations.
Álvarez has stressed that "the important thing was to position this day of struggle that will include work stoppages for all workers, but we will be specifying it territorially and sectorally. The important thing is the strike and the ability to call for demonstrations," insisting that the key will be the social response and participation in the mobilizations.
When asked whether the advance of the elections has conditioned the call for the strike, the leader of UGT rejected it. "On Friday I already said that we did not rule it out. We had been working together for days to see how and in what way we could achieve it," he recalled, defending that the initiative had been developing beforehand.
The unionist also emphasized that the housing conflict is a broad social problem that goes beyond the strictly labor sphere and affects "retired people, young people who want to study and cannot because the rooms have impossible prices." "Today we believed it was the right moment to do it," he added about the announcement of the strike.
UGT and CCOO have proposed this day of strikes to demand decent wages and ensure access to decent housing, a call that must be endorsed by the highest governing bodies of both unions. The protest is part of their demands linked to the VI Agreement for Employment and Collective Bargaining (AENC) and their "Decalogue for the right to housing."
According to the announcement published in the Official State Bulletin (BOE) on October 6, the electoral campaign will start on November 13 and will last until 00:00 hours on November 28, at which point the reflection day prior to the voting on Sunday the 29 will begin.