Pepe Álvarez (Belmonte de Miranda, Asturias, 1956) has been re-elected this Wednesday as leader of the UGT union for a third and final term, being the only candidate for the position of general secretary, with almost 80% of votes in favor. With the motto ‘More and better union’, Álvarez has defended continuing to advance new rights, such as the reduction of working hours, and has demanded that greater compensation be approved for unions by the State for their work as social agents.
UGT closes its 44th Confederal Congress this Wednesday, which was held for the third time in its more than 130 years of history in Barcelona, the city where the union was born. Before leading the organization at the state level (since 2016), when he took over from Cándido Méndez, Pepe Álvarez was leader of the union in Catalonia, where he forged his career in the metal sector.
This will be Pepe Álvarez’s third and last term at the head of UGT, until 2028, for four more years in which he has defended the need for “More and better union”, the motto of this confederal congress. “More unions mean more rights. More union is more democracy. More union means reducing the work day. More union is putting your foot on the extreme right, it is freedom with a capital letter,” stated the re-elected leader of the union.
The Confederal Congress held these days is the supreme body of UGT at the state level, from which a new leadership (Executive Commission) has emerged, which has renewed several of its positions and has obtained the support of 79.44% of the votes. These days of internal process have had the objectives of setting the general lines of the union’s policy, analyzing the management of the confederal bodies so far and also establishing its operating rules and challenges for the future, among others.
In these three days of congress, many representatives from the political, union, business and institutional world have attended. From the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, to the Second Vice President and Minister of Labor, Yolanda Díaz, to the most controversial intervention and assistance of the leader of the Popular Party, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, and his counterpart in CCOO, Unai Sordo, or the President of the CEOE employers’ association, Antonio Garamendi, among others.
Towards new rights: reducing the working day
Álvarez has highlighted the direction of the union in recent years, especially in the last term in which he has highlighted the great progress of key labor rights. For example, the large increase in the interprofessional minimum wage, the approval of the labor and pension reform, agreed upon in social dialogue, as well as the Rider Law and the entire labor management of the pandemic, in which unions were a key cog. when proposing and negotiating ERTE.
The UGT leader has looked to the future to demand the need to continue advancing new rights for workers. One thing on the horizon is mainly the reduction of the working day, which for Pepe Álvarez must go further than the 37 and a half hours that the coalition government intends to approve.
Although a few weeks ago the UGT leader urged the Government to reduce the working day “without making concessions” to the employers, due to their refusal to agree to the measure, this Wednesday Pepe Álvarez stated that there is still “the opportunity” for an agreement with the CEOE. Yesterday, the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, asked businessmen to sit down and negotiate, despite the fact that the Ministry of Labor has already closed this dialogue table after the ‘no’ from the CEOE.
“I mean we have the opportunity to do it [reducir la jornada]negotiated and agreed with the employers’ organizations. It largely depends on them. It depends on whether they want and accept this absolutely essential advance,” Pepe Álvarez stated this Wednesday.
The union is also focusing its efforts on promoting a legal reform of dismissal and overtime, for which it already began a strategy of international complaints against Spain in the last term, through the European Committee of Social Rights. This Wednesday, there has just been news that supports the union, with a request from the Council of Europe to Spain to reform severance pay.
Pay for the work of unions
Another of the demands that Pepe Álvarez has brought to the forefront in this Confederal Congress has been the request for greater compensation for unions from the State. Beyond the current public subsidies, Álvarez has demanded that the State pay for the role played by majority worker organizations as social agents. “Being a union member costs money to the union members themselves,” stated Álvarez.
For example, when negotiating and agreeing on equality plans in companies, collective agreements, as well as other labor regulations that are later transformed into rights for the entire working population. In other countries, Álvarez recalled, the conditions agreed upon by unions only benefit their members, but in Spain they extend to all employees of the company or sector in question.
Pepe Álvarez has also insisted on the need to address one of the main problems of citizens today, access to housing, as well as continue advancing in the increases in the interprofessional minimum wage (SMI), improve the conditions of scholarship recipients, and continue taking steps in favor of gender equality, among other demands.
At a press conference, the Deputy Secretary General of Organization, Rafael Espartero, defended that “the union must grow in number and must grow in quality, it must face new times, it must face a new way of producing that has to do with telecommuting”.
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