Unions take to the streets: “It’s time to act quickly”

Another day of mobilizations in the country -nearly sixty-, although in this case it is the consumers who intend to take to the streets of the main Spanish cities to express their rejection of the increase in the cost of the shopping basket and energy products and demand a price control and employment protection. And they do it one day before the European Council meets to agree on the measures to alleviate this wave of inflation called by the two majority unions in Spain, UGT and CC OO; the self-employed organizations UPTA and Uatae, and associations such as Facua and the State Confederation of Neighborhood Associations (CEAV).

In the morning hundreds of workers demonstrated in front of the work centers. In the afternoon different demonstrations will tour the center of the big cities, with great prominence for the one that will be held in Madrid.

“It’s time to act quickly.” This is what they claim in the manifesto that they will read, in which they denounce the “deterioration of the living conditions of families, workers and consumers” derived from an inflation that has climbed to 7.6%, the highest level for 36 years , as a result of the rise in energy prices and its contagion to the rest of the shopping basket.

“We can not wait. They are already late”, warned the general secretary of the UGT, Pepe Álvarez, who pointed out that “this unbearable situation does not come from now”, since “we have been with the growth of prices for a long time, especially electricity”. Therefore, he urged Brussels to take the “necessary measures” and allow states to regulate prices. “If the EU can regulate it for the entire continent, the better, but if it cannot regulate it, what it cannot do is keep the countries in the grip of these prices,” he specified.

Along these same lines, the general secretary of the CCOO, Unai Sordo, warned that “the only possibility” for Spain to “tame” inflation is to “drastically” reduce energy and electricity costs. In his opinion, the current situation of escalating prices requires having “high sights” and deploying a package of “maximum intensity” economic measures.

Against a tax cut

The union leader also recognized that the Government should have acted earlier to help the economic sectors most impacted by the rise in prices, but pointed out that, “beyond time management”, what is “absolutely a priority” is resolve the meeting of the European Council that starts this Thursday with measures that enable a drastic reduction in energy and electricity costs.

«Spain is at stake tomorrow in the European Council as much as we were at stake when the European funds were launched. We need that tomorrow and the day after tomorrow Spain, together with other countries, can carry out a package of measures that make it possible to decouple the price of gas from electricity », he stressed.

Both from the CC OO and from the UGT they reiterated that the solution is not a tax cut, as some parties and sectors are asking, since “the market eats that drop,” according to Álvarez.

“A generalized tax cut would be a mistake, a trap that would put Spain in a very delicate fiscal situation in a couple of years,” defended Sordo, who pointed out that “the time sequence has to be to win the European battle, drastically lower energy prices and support measures for the most vulnerable sectors and families hardest hit by the current situation.