The unions call to protest next February 22 against the reluctance of the employers to pay the CPI differential agreed in the previous agreement
It’s not the bay Cadizbut the negotiations for the new metal convention from Barcelona They start out hot. This is the most important collective agreement in all of Spain, it covers 200,000 workers -more than any other agreement-, serves as a reference in many other negotiations and the renewal for the coming years of this specification does not start off on the right foot. The unions have already called protests and presented a collective conflict to the patronal given the misgivings of this to immediately pay the current salary review clause and that forces companies to compensate for the triggered inflation. From UPM, the metal employers, they have declined to answer questions from EL PERIÓDICO.
The next February 22 the first meeting is scheduled to start negotiating the Barcelona metal agreement and CCOO Y UGT have already called demonstrations in front of the headquarters of Workforce Development as the soundtrack of the meeting. There is no forecast that the tension will tempt the Government to take tanks out on the street to stop the protests, as happened in the Bay of Cádiz, but the unions warn: “If they don’t pay what is already ours, things are going to heat up “, affirm from the UGT. “And it is difficult to heat metal, but when you heat it, it is difficult to cool it,” they add from CCOO.
In Spain the 15.8% of collective agreements have a salary review clause to prevent salaries from losing purchasing power in the event of unforeseen inflation. The current problem is that the difference between what was agreed and the CPI is not a matter of tenths, but of points. The metal agreement includes one of these clauses -specifically in its article 41– and, given the 2% increase agreed for 2021, now companies have to raise salaries four points to comply with the agreement. Which implies a significant outlay for companies. These clauses are scarce in the agreements and are practically only included in sectors where the centrals have negotiating strength.
The old agreement obliges companies to pay this differential, but the PSU, the employer of the branch, intends to delay the payment and bring it to the framework of the negotiation. Something that the centrals do not accept and for which they have already presented a collective dispute before the Superior Court of Justice of Catalonia (TSJC). Mediation is scheduled for February 17 and if there is no agreement, the issue will depend on the magistrates. The complaint is an obstacle for the negotiations, since the plants refuse to start talking about the new specifications until this “non-payment” is resolved, in their opinion. “You cannot start a negotiation by failing to comply with the past”, they affirm from CCOO.
A reference agreement
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The metal agreement is a benchmark for collective bargaining for many sectors or provinces, which are inspired by or directly replicate the conditions agreed upon therein. And currently there are many eyes pending the outcome of the talks that formally begin on February 22. Well the Collective negotiation It has been especially burdened for two years, first by the pandemic and now by inflation. Few agreements are signed, because with the current CPI the companies are not willing to raise salaries to the same level and the centrals lack incentives to accept increases that cause them a loss of purchasing power. That same problem, that of applying the salary guarantee clause in full escalation of inflation, is being found by negotiators in other specifications, such as that of the metallographic or chocolate industry.
Added to all this is the absence of a Agreement for Employment and Collective Bargaining (AENC), a kind of ‘agreement of agreements’ in which the leadership of CEOE, CCOO Y UGT they agree on recommendations on how wages should evolve. So that later, sector by sector and province by province, the negotiators apply them. The problem is that currently in the metal of Barcelona -as in the rest of the sectors- they have to renew their agreement without that shared roadmap. This causes the negotiators to look askance at each other, because if the employers accept very high increases, in other sectors the unions will not negotiate for less. And if, on the contrary, the centrals agree not to cover all or part of the rise in the IPC, in other unions the employers will push to lower the bar accordingly. The battle of metal is served.