The president of the Congress and general secretary of the PSIB, Francina Armengol, has reiterated her party’s support for the general strike next November 11, a call that will demand wage increases and a shift in housing policies.
This Monday, Armengol held a meeting with representatives of UGT in Baleares, including its general secretary, Pedro Homar, to address the specific situation of workers on the islands and analyze the details of the called general strike.
During the meeting, she emphasized that the PSIB shares "absolutely" the reasons for the general strike, centered, first of all, on the need for wage increases.
The Socialist leader has called for the collective agreements that are negotiated to reflect that the cost of living "has increased" in recent years and, consequently, to include "clear" wage increases in Baleares in all sectors, "also in the public administration".
At the same time, Armengol has defended as "absolutely fundamental" a profound change in housing policies, considering that this area determines whether a family or a person can enjoy a "dignified" existence or is driven into "very precarious" conditions.
For this reason, she has insisted that housing must be an "absolute priority", recalling that tools already exist to try to "alleviate" the situation of many people, but she has denounced that "they are not being applied".
At this point, she referred to the state Housing Law, which the Govern refuses to apply and which, as she explained, would allow numerous families to "pay less in rent" and many small owners to obtain advantages in the form of tax deductions, benefits that they now cannot access because of "the refusal of the PP and of the president of the Govern, Marga Prohens, to apply the state law".
Armengol also called for the implementation of other public policies, such as the promotion of officially protected housing, the prohibition of evictions, or the extension of rent contract extensions. She recalled that all these measures are included by the Government of Spain in two royal decrees that must be debated in the Standing Committee and expressed confidence that they can be definitively approved.
In any case, the general secretary of the PSIB has reaffirmed her "absolute support" for the general strike and has called on all people who can to join the strike and to participate in the demonstration scheduled for November 11.