The Union of Self-Employed Professionals, Women and Men (UPTA) has denounced this Thursday that political formations have relegated to a secondary level the main challenges facing self-employed workers in Spain within their electoral programs, according to the organization itself.
UPTA regrets that issues such as pensions, contributions, taxation, social protection, or the “survival” of small businesses continue to lack “specific and verifiable” commitments from the parties.
The group also reproaches the lack of dialogue with representative organizations of the self-employed and argues that “no political party has held working meetings with the organization to find out about its demands before the start of the electoral campaign.”
“For UPTA, it is unacceptable that parties seek to present themselves as defenders of the self-employed without having first sat down to listen to their problems and proposals,” the organization has said, adding that “it will not take part in photographs or electoral propaganda events with those parties that have not shown a real will to engage in dialogue.”
The trade union organization criticizes that references to self-employment be limited to “a few lines” in the programs and that pending matters continue to go unresolved from years ago. For this reason, it calls on the parties to ensure that their initiatives include clearly defined implementation timelines, budgetary resources, and regulatory changes.
UPTA has set a total of twelve priorities that “require specific commitments” in areas such as the IRPF, contributions, pensions, sick leave, or generational replacement, among other aspects.
CRITICISM OF POLITICAL FORMATIONS
Its president, Eduardo Abad, has described the actions of those responsible for politics as “an authentic shame.” “None has had the willingness to sit down with UPTA to learn about our proposals and listen to the real problems that the group is suffering. This shows the little interest they have in resolving them,” he said.
Abad has underlined that they are "fed up with so much political hypocrisy" and has called for greater responsibility from the formations: "Self-employed people do not need any party to give us lessons or make promises that after all end up in a drawer. We demand respect, solutions, and written commitments. And whoever is not willing to take them on should have the courage to publicly acknowledge that the problems of self-employed people are not among their priorities".