The Spanish trade unions CC. OO. and UGT-Fica PV announced that they would suspend the strike, which started yesterday, to sit down again with the employers, represented by CGC and Cooperatives Agro-alimentàries, to negotiate the collective bargaining agreement.
"At the request of the Directorate-General of Labour, we have been summoned to a meeting on Wednesday at 12:30 p.m. They ask us to suspend (not call off) the strike, pending the outcome of the negotiation," the CC. OO. PV stated.
"We hope that the mediation of the Directorate General can unblock the conflict and lead to an agreement. If not, we will resume the strike," the CC. OO. stated.
The unions requested an improvement in the labor agreement for the next four years, a 9% salary increase for both piece-rate and hourly workers, and the maintenance of the order of convocations according to seniority.
The CGC said the trade unions' attitude was “irresponsible and incoherent”
The CGC said that the requests of the unions would put Valencian citriculture at a disadvantage regarding other Spanish citrus-producing regions. The CGC said the unions' had an irresponsible and incoherent attitude throughout the 'short' negotiation process, which consisted of four effective meetings and 10 hours of talks.
In addition, the CGC stated, based on the gross wages of the current agreement and without considering the improvements that the CGC has put on the table for the coming years, the current agreement for the Valencian Community is 23.8% more generous than the one in Tarragona, 26.6% more than that the one in Seville, and 27.6% more than the one in Murcia.
In this regard, the Valencian Farmers' Association (AVA-ASAJA) expressed its concern about the strike. "We don't understand how the region where harvest workers are paid the most has the most crises."
The CGC also expressed its bewilderment at the 'stubbornness' with which the unions oppose that the work groups be called together, which would force operators to call each worker individually. "That way of working is inefficient and even threatens to provoke conflicts between workers of different origins," the CGC stated.