The indefinite strike at the CRTVG goes up a notch with the call for Sunday, December 1, for a “large demonstration” in which the workers “call on all Galician citizens to defend the public media.” The decision, endorsed by the assemblies held this Tuesday, was made public a day later, on the seventeenth day of partial strike that, once again, prevented the broadcast of the morning magazine O Thermometer.
All while, according to the strike committee, “far from de-escalating” the situation, the leadership of the corporation “delves into repressive maneuvers to deactivate” the mobilization through “abuse of power and fear.” The last example they recount, the appearance of a technician from an external company to measure the volume of the decibels of the megaphone with which they announce the start of the strike. The objective, they say, was to “gather evidence to activate a disciplinary file” against the members of the committee.
Despite this, the program O Thermometer remains the most effective workplace temperature gauge at CRTVG. This co-production, which replaced the historic morning magazine at the beginning of the season To Magazinewas the trigger for a strike against the outsourcing of content that is in its sixth week with management and union positions increasingly distant.
As an example, in addition to the call for the demonstration, since this Monday, the 90-minute partial strikes that had reduced the broadcast of O Thermometer to a single hour on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays have been extended by 45 more minutes, which has caused the program to have completely fallen off the grid on two occasions.
The management of the CRTVG – which claims to limit itself to “ensuring that the right to work that workers massively want to exercise is respected” – continues to minimize monitoring of the call and claims a “massive rejection” of the staff to the conflict, since that “the sustained data” leaves the support “between 10% and 15%.”
However, for the committee, in such a prolonged conflict – and which, therefore, causes a great loss of income to those who support it –, the important thing is not the monitoring, but the rotation that allows holding the rallies at the door of the headquarters of San Marcos – events that have been joined by personalities from culture, politics and the secretary of the European Federation of Journalists herself – while the broadcast of O Thermometer; an objective that, partially or totally, has been achieved on each day of mobilization.
Union leaders, better one at a time
Attempts to bring positions closer, so far, have not been fruitful. The CRTVG insists that the decision to replace To Magazine –a program carried out exclusively with its own resources for more than twenty years– by O Thermometera similar but co-produced format – the company rejects being defined as “outsourcing” – is purely “organizational, production and strategic” and “does not affect the labor rights” of the workforce.
The general director of the corporation, Alfonso Sánchez Izquierdo, rejected the request for a meeting sent to him by the general secretaries of the three most representative unions in Galicia – CIG, UGT and CCOO – together with that of the majority center in the public media – CUT – to “address the conflict situation.”
The four union leaders – in an unprecedented joint statement – considered that this refusal demonstrated Sánchez Izquierdo’s “lack of negotiating spirit” in the face of a conflict “generated by business management that aims to support information manipulation, the privatization of production and the dismantling of the public audiovisual communication service.
The general director’s rejection was one of the reasons given by the strike committee to “toughen” the conflict, increasing the duration of the strikes that, from December 1, will no longer be on alternate days but will become daily. The workers claim that Izquierdo had conveyed “at first” his intention to accept the meeting, something he later rejected “for unknown reasons.”
The version offered by the CRTVG management is different and they assure that it is “false” that the meeting was scheduled. What did take place were individual telephone conversations between Sánchez Izquierdo and the four secretaries. Those “broad and cordial” talks did not help the corporation make any move. Maintains that the issuance of O Thermometer “It does not concern issues that directly affect personnel,” since it does not imply changes in their conditions nor does it imply “any reduction in personnel, remuneration rights or any other type.” That was the same reason they gave for rejecting labor mediation.
In their statement, the four general secretaries “radically” disagreed with this argument because they consider that the privatization of content production “negatively affects the volume of public employment” which, during Sánchez Izquierdo’s mandate, suffered “a very significant reduction.” , while “precarious working conditions” for workers.
The law and the popular legislative initiative
The appearance of O Thermometer was the necessary drop to overflow the boiling pot that, for years – this Friday, the Defende a Galega platform will reach the black venres number 339–, is the CRTVG. Eternally accused of acting as the media arm of the Xunta and the PP, with sentences that punish the repression of unruly workers, a draft bill that will increase political control over the corporation is about to enter Parliament. A text that, above all, seeks a formula to take over from the CEO, whose position has been extended “provisionally” since 2016 and who has already shown on several occasions his intention to leave office. While that moment arrives, both Izquierdo, 75, and eight other members of his leadership are being prosecuted for the alleged workplace harassment of a Radio Galega worker.
The formula used to avoid the lack of consensus in the appointment of his successor will be to lower it from a qualified majority to an absolute one, which is what the PP has in the autonomous Chamber. It is the same method that RTVE will use to appoint its advisors and that the PP has criticized so much in Madrid. In parallel, the popular legislative initiative Let’s free Galega!promoted by 40 entities in response to the new law, is in the process of collecting signatures after being admitted for processing by the Parliament Bureau.
Letter to the President of Parliament
And in the midst of all these fronts, Sánchez Izquierdo took a step that the main opposition force, the BNG, considers “extremely serious.” The nationalists have launched a campaign, through social networks and street advertisements, under the slogan Against manipulation! We want TVG and Radio Galega and non TelePP and Radio PP. The general director’s response was to denounce it in a letter sent to the president of the Parliament of Galicia, the popular Miguel Santalices.
In his letter, Izquierdo considers this “action with social impact” “unfair”, since it “may disturb the behavior” of Galicians “in their free exercise of choosing the media.” “The messages are value judgments that harm the management operations” of the CRTVG “undermining its public service capabilities,” he writes.
The letter marked the last appearance of the general director in the Autonomous Chamber. He came to talk about the corporation’s budgets for 2025, but the Block was not willing to let this fact pass by. “Are you not realizing the consequences that this letter can have and how dangerous it is for a democratic system like ours? “Who are you or Mr. Santalices to tell the BNG what campaigns it can or cannot run?” Representative Iago Suárez asked without hiding his anger. “After 16 years at the head of the CRTVG, you will be remembered for this letter. “It’s not enough to manipulate, as now they also want to silence the BNG.”
After that appearance – where Izquierdo stated that the movement was “very measured and well thought out” – and to questions from elDiario.es, the CRTVG responded that they were not seeking to “answer” any political group, but that the general director had “seen under the obligation” to go to Santalices to “inform it of the existence of an anti-competitive paid advertising campaign developed by a parliamentary group.” As Suárez recalled, it is the party and not the group that launches the campaign. When the matter was transferred to the Presidency of Parliament, a spokesperson assured that the institution “limited itself” to registering the letter so that all groups in the chamber were aware of its existence.
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