Protests against liberalisation of postal services

Trade unions and workers in the Spanish public postal service are fighting job losses in the sector and the threat to liberalise the service further. April 1998 saw rallies and protests against the proposed measures.

In April 1998, more than 20,000 workers in the postal services across the whole of Spain supported rallies and protests called by the Unitary Trade Union Platform (Plataforma Sindical Unitaria) against the liberalisation of these services. Workers and all the representative trade unions (CC.OO, UGT, CSI-CSIF,Sindicato Libre, CIG, ELA and CGT) have therefore now expressed their unanimous opposition to a bill on liberalisation presented by the Government.

According to the trade unions, the Spanish postal service has traditionally suffered from a lack of regulation and funding that has transformed it into one of the most deregulated, competitive and liberalised public services in the country. Therefore, they consider that measures required by the EU Directive on postal services (97/67/EC), the origin of the bill presented by the Government, should not involve further liberalisation. On the contrary, they should provide appropriate regulation and sufficient funding to ensure the service's viability.

Workers' representatives maintain that the content of the bill does not benefit citizens in any way, but rather gives priority to private investors. They claim that the bill does not guarantee the postal service for users because it does not guarantee its financial viability, and instead discriminates against citizens according to their place of residence. Furthermore, it is stated that the bill introduces an imbalance between the economic burden that is imposed on the mail as the provider of a universal service and the economic value of the exclusive rights that are reserved for it, condemning it to a permanent deficit that can be solved only by increasing the charges paid by users. For these same financial and geographical reasons, the unions calculate that 20,000 public sector jobs could be threatened.

The trade unions have also protested at what they claim is the Government's unilateral and authoritarian action. Despite attempts by workers' representatives, the Government has refused to negotiate the content of the bill with the social partners. The unions also accuse the Government of hindering the right to strike by imposing excessive minimum services in the event of industrial action in this sector.

It remains to be seen whether partial work stoppages, marches, demonstrations and a strike in the sector will achieve the withdrawal or modification of the bill. If not, a new chapter in the privatisation policy carried out by the current Government will be witnessed.