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M17 STRIKE

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Faced with the strike in favour of the Minimum Wage itself, the Basque Chamber is in favour of negotiating 'until dawn', but 'without threats'

After ELA, LAB, Steilas, ESK, Hiru and Etxalde called a general strike in Hegoalde on March 17, the president of the alliance between the chambers of Álava, Bilbao and Gipuzkoa, Gregorio Rojo, has advocated for "dialogue" with the unions.
Gregorio_Rojo
Stock image of Gregorio Rojo. Photo: EITB

The president of the Basque Chamber, Gregorio Rojo, has stated beforethe  of the general strike called in Hego Euskal Herria to achieve his own SMI that he is in favour of "negotiating until dawn", but that the negotiation "cannot be carried out with threats".

The head of the organization representing the alliance between the chambers of Álava, Bilbao and Gipuzkoa presented today in Bilbao the forecasts for 2026, an event in which, in response to questions from journalists, Rojo referred to the general strike called by ELA, LAB, Steilas, ESK, Hiru and Etxalde for 17 March.

Hesaid that "we are in a decisive context marked by uncertainty" bat and that "this is an important time to negotiate from the bottom up and from the bottom up the general situation in the Basque Country, in Spain and in Europe".


   
The representative of the Chamber of Commerce of Álava also believes that it is necessaryto"try to maintain the same economic structure of the country", since, in his opinion, it is "excellent" because the Basque Country has a very strong industry that provides a large volume of wages. "We have the highest national wages thanks to industry, but obviously we also have to think about maintaining industry and bringing new ones, and we have to be attractive," he added.

Rojo has pointed out that you have to be attractive in social and relational terms,you have to listen to each other  and try to have "the best conditions" for workers. "We all know what a company is, it's capital, it's a management team and it's its employees and, of course, the product," he said.

That is what eta has said that if the unions understand that an Interprofessional Minimum Wage is needed, they must "talk". "We must negotiate, but not by threatening, but by reflecting on the real situation we have," he explained.

José Ignacio Zudaire, president of the Bilbao Chamber, will replace Rojo in office from 1 January 2026, a relay that was also represented at today's event.

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