In 2023, most workers experienced a year of chiaroscuro in the Region. Among the positive news, a salary improvement was sealed in bogged down collective agreements such as the hospitality industry, which benefits some 35,000 workers, and the metal one, which affects some 20,000 people. But last year was also marked by the loss of purchasing power due to inflation and stagnant salaries in various sectors.
This year, different negotiations that were stalled must be resumed. These are agreements that UGT and CC OO consider “emblematic”, such as that for the transport of goods by road; Private sanity; agricultural, forestry and livestock, and cleaning of buildings and premises. These four issues, which concern more than 52,000 workers, are expected to be resolved in this first quarter of the year.
According to the unions, discussions will begin this month on the transport of goods by road – an agreement that has been entrenched for several years and that affects 20,000 drivers – after establishing a technical table with Croem to address the most conflictive issues; but also that of health establishments, with around 7,200 workers. “We started 2024 with the good background that we managed to unlock collective agreements with great significance,” says Antonio Jiménez, general secretary of UGT Region of Murcia. “Now we must do the same with other emblematic ones,” continues the union representative, who trusts that the new attitude of business organizations will allow “modernizing the working conditions” of thousands of workers who are under the umbrella of these collective agreements.
There are also other negotiations in the making, such as that of tomato handling and packaging, which should be easy to solve, according to the general secretary of the Workers' Commissions, Santiago Navarro. «We never know if they will be resolved quickly; In the Region we are accustomed to having very long and fruitless negotiations on many occasions, as has been demonstrated with agreements that have been unsigned for up to fifteen years. Navarro highlights that they will try to improve purchasing power and ensure compliance with the Agreement for Employment and Collective Bargaining (Aenc) between the unions and the CEOE employers' association.
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