Unions call for higher wages in face of inflation on International Workers' Day
Thousands take to the streets of Barcelona and other Catalan cities for May Day
A few thousand people took to the streets of Barcelona and other major Catalan cities - including some 300 in Lleida, 500 in Girona, and almost 1,000 in Tarragona - on International Workers' Day on Sunday to demand an increase in wages in the face of historically high inflation rates and onerous energy costs, exacerbated by the war in Ukraine.
On the first "normal" May Day after two years of Covid, the CCOO and UGT trade unions called on workers to protest in favor of "raising salaries, containing prices, and ending inequalities" at a demonstration that began just before midday at Plaça Urquinaona in Barcelona.
Politicians including senior coalition member Esquerra's Marta Vilalta, anti-austerity Podemos' Jaume Asens, or the Socialists' Salvador Illa were in attendance.
"27% of Catalans are at risk of poverty," Javier Pacheco of CCOO said. "These people find it impossible to pay current prices."
Comença la manifestació de Barcelona #LaSolució #PrimerDeMaig #LaSolución #1MCCOO pic.twitter.com/TgZjjmDEYM
— CCOO de Catalunya (@ccoocatalunya) May 1, 2022
Nonetheless, UGT secretary-general Camil Ros did acknowledge that "the conditions of working people are better than a year earlier" despite the cost of living crisis.
Spain approved a new labor market regulation in early February that limits the amount of temporary contracts companies can sign and fines those that use them in a fraudulent manner to avoid improving workers' rights. The minimum wage was raised again, this time to €1,000, a week later.
A day of workers' protests
CCOO and UGT were far from the only unions that marked the day.
USOC, for one, held a protest that began at 11 am at the crossroads of Avinguda Diagonal and Passeig Sant Joan in Barcelona. According to the organizers, "regulating prices is the only way out" of the cost of living crisis. They also denounced the "slow and difficult" economic recovery following the pandemic as well as "very precarious" working conditions.
Manifestació de l’1 de maig de la USOC a Barcelona , passeig de Sant Joan pic.twitter.com/6BNye4egT5
— USOC (@usocatalunya) May 1, 2022
Intersindical, a pro-independence trade union, called for "more work, more wages, and more pensions" at midday from the Catalan capital's Plaça Tetuan, not far from the USOC protest.
Comencem la manifestació del #1Maig2022 de @LaIntersindical per reivindicar +pensions +salari +pensions +serveis públics
— LA INTERSINDICAL🎗 (@LaIntersindical) May 1, 2022
Els carrers seran sempre nostres! pic.twitter.com/CqRx5snXe7
"Rights are won by fighting!" is what the CGT union claimed at a gathering that took place at 11 am at Jardinets de Gràcia, near Barcelona's Passeig de Gràcia avenue. "The conditions of the working class continue to deteriorate," their manifesto reads.
Meanwhile, Intersindical Alternativa de Catalunya, alongside the USTEC teachers' union, is set to gather at the Parc de les Tres Xemeneies in Barcelona's Poble Sec neighborhood at 6 pm to "fight together for our rights."