Unions campaign against Government's industrial policy

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The trade union confederations, UGT (Unión General de Trabajadores) and CC.OO (Comisiones Obreras), have initiated a campaign against the industrial policy of the Spanish Government and its plans for privatisation. This campaign has so far included a strike in publicly-owned industrial companies in July 1997, and the unions have warned of continued action.

The CC.OO and UGT campaign against the Spanish Government's industrial policy has been carried out so far by the union federations in the metalworking sector, which on 10 July 1997 called a strike across publicly-owned industrial companies and organised a demonstration in front of the Ministry of Industry. After the demonstration, the general secretaries of UGT and CC.OO warned the Government that the campaign will continue in the autumn if it does not change its policy.

The rejection of the Government's industrial policy by the tarde unions has become stronger in the last few months as the result of various factors. The first of these is the dispute over the publicly-owned Astander shipyard and the Strategic Competitiveness Plan (PEC) for the naval sector (ES9706113N). The unions maintain that the Government has unilaterally modified the agreement reached on the PEC by reducing the activity of Astander and enforcing its privatisation. By mid-June, alleged harsh police repression of a protest by the workers at this shipyard escalated the conflict, forcing the Government to reconsider its position. However, negotiations have only just begun and the future of Astander is still uncertain.

The second factor that has contributed to the growth of conflict is the unions' rejection of the privatisation plans for two of the most important public companies in the metalworking sector, CSI and INESPAL.

CSI is the only complete steelworks in Spain and employs about 12,000 people. In 1996 it had a turnover of about ESP 300 billion and earned profits amounting to ESP 15 billion. The Government plans to privatise it totally by the end of 1997. The unions accept the entry of private capital into CSI, as long as the state conserves a majority shareholding. They consider that steel production is a strategic sector with a great importance for Asturias and that it must not be totally privatised. Because of this, the unions have demanded participation in the privatisation process of the company, proposing as an alternative that CSI should establish strategic alliances with other steel groups but remain under public control. Because of the lack of response by the Government, which is continuing with its plans, the campaign began with strikes in CSI plants at the end of June.

A further dispute was caused by the privatisation of INESPAL, a public aluminium manufacturing company. In this case, the unions claimed once again that they were not allowed to participate in the privatisation process, which in its current form does not guarantee either present employment levels or the future of all the workplaces. The Government's refusal to negotiate led to strikes at CSI and INESPAL on 3, 10, 17 and 24 July 1997.

The third dispute between unions and Government concerns the wage negotiations for the workers of the public companies belonging to the Industrial Agency of the State (AIE). The unions and the AIE had reached an initial agreement for the next three years: an increase equivalent to 90% of the increase in the retail prices index (RPI) for companies making losses, and an increase of up to 1.5% above the RPI for companies making profits, as long as the increases were linked to an increase in productivity.

In June, the Government made public its refusal to respect this preliminary agreement, freezing agreed wage rises that exceeded the RPI, in line with the repeated call for wage moderation by the employers' organisations and the Government itself. This decision led to great dissatisfaction amongst the unions, which converted the strike at CSI and INESPAL on 10 July into a strike across all the companies of the AIE and the State Industrial Participation Society (SEPI), which employ about 50,000 workers.

The unions believe that the current disputes at Astander, CSI, and INESPAL, and the conflict over wage settlements, are only the tip of the iceberg of the growing disagreement with the Government's industrial policy and its refusal to enter into a dialogue with the unions. They claim that the privatisation policy has so far led to a loss of employment of between 55,000 and 60,000 jobs. They also feel that this policy involves the erosion of the country's industrial heritage and the absence of an active industrial policy. The unions have therefore announced further campaigns for the autumn if the Government does not change its position.