Thousands of workers called by the unions ELA, LAB, ESK, Steilas, Hiru and Etxalde demonstrated this Wednesday in Bilbao in front of the headquarters of the Basque Government, PNV and PSE-EE to demand that they support the popular legislative initiative in favor of a minimum wage for Euskadi.
Led by several people carrying signs with the numbers of the number of signatures collected, 138,495 signatures, the march started from the Sacred Heart, in front of the headquarters of the Basque Government, to stop at the socialist headquarters in the capital of Biscay and end before the Sabin Etxea, in Jardines de Albia.
Both the protesters and on behalf of ELA, Mitxel Lakuntza and LAB, Igor Arroyo, have demanded from the Executive and the two coalition parties that support it, but also from the employers’ association Confebask, that “it is in their hands to avoid an undemocratic decision.”
Both officials have also denounced the blockade caused by both the employers and the autonomous Executive; Confebask, through collective bargaining and the Basque Government, with the publication of a report against the ILP, so that, for both union leaders, they have acted “against the will of the citizens and the working class.”
After accusing Jeltzales and socialists of aligning themselves with the employers “with the aim of blocking the path to the legitimate demands of the social and union majority of this country”, Lakuntza and Arroyo recalled that 138,495 signatures were collected in favor of their own minimum wage, to “face the situations of precariousness and poverty, and to move towards a fair distribution of wealth.”
From the perspective of the convening unions, “these signatures reflect the will of the majority of these people”, so the position adopted by the parties of the Basque Government is “serious and undemocratic”, since they even deny the parliamentary debate itself, something that, in their opinion, “is an authoritarian way of acting.”
Finally, the protest has demanded that “the will of the citizens be respected and that the debate and processing of the popular legislative initiative be allowed”, so that the parties that support the government, “have an unbeatable opportunity to reconsider their position” and decide, they added, “which side they are on: whether with the rights of the workers or with the interests of the employers.”
After remembering that, in addition to the mobilization, they have sent letters to the headquarters of the PNV and the Socialist Party conveying the same request, that this Thursday, in the Basque Parliament, “change their position and support the popular legislative initiative,” Lakuntza and Arroyo have stressed that with their demonstration “it has become clear that the social majority wants decent jobs and demands their own minimum wage.”
