Labor conflict

At a meeting with the Amurrio Factory Works Council, the management has reported the suspension of the feasibility plan and collective dismissal, and from now on, all decisions of the company will be taken by an insolvency administration.

A summary, in two words, of what will be news in the Present today.

The workers of Tubos Reunidos have concentrated this Tuesday in front of their offices in Bilbao, one day after the company presented the voluntary competition of creditors, which has about 1,300 employees and accumulated debt of more than 260 million euros.

The company will hold a meeting with the Trapagaran and Amurrio Works Councils on 6 May and 235 signatures have been submitted to the Labour Inspectorate to decide whether to continue the indefinite strike in Amurrio.

They report that the "overburdens" they suffer at work cause so-called "gum agendas" that extend unchecked, which has a direct impact on their health.

EH Bildu has brought to the Chamber a motion to improve the working conditions of doctors, and MP Rebeka Ubera has asked the Basque Government's Health Adviser, Alberto Martínez, to move the file and take action.  Laura Garrido of the People's Party has also defended the powers of the Government to improve the medical situation.

Called by the works council, they have been on indefinite strike since March 15 at the Amurrio plant. ELA, LAB and ESK supported unemployment and CCOO and UGT opposed it. The latter have from the outset demanded that the decision on the strike be taken in a referendum. 

Alberto Martínez has said that if the Spanish Ministry of Health "is not in a position to renew the Framework Statute", Euskadi is prepared to undertake the transfer.

The measure, which will be voluntary, aims to reduce surgical waiting lists, which in the Basque Country are above 78 days on average. The Health Adviser, Alberto Martínez, has warned that the strike by doctors continues without dialogue or progress and can be extended until May or June.

In a statement, the ELA union has stated that the Supreme Court's admission of the appeal against collective dismissal shows that the merger with the failed Jesuitinas school and the dismissal of the workers was a "dark and poorly managed" process that caused "the concern of the families and the diversion of enrolment of the students" until, in the end, "the final closure of the school"; "all with the approval and complicity of the Basque Government", according to the union.

Unemployment would affect the lines between Bilbao, Donostia-San Sebastián and Vitoria-Gasteiz, as well as those connecting Loiu airport with Donostia-San Sebastián, Vitoria-Gasteiz and Arrasate and all bus services in the Deba Valley.

The decision has been joined by 73 professionals from the area — medical specialist, MIR student and head of care units — who have all expressed their support for the recently resigned head of the trauma service, Javier González Arteaga. 

Sources close to the company have indicated that the company is working with the office of Uria and Menéndez to conduct the creditor competition, but Tubos Reunidos has not confirmed the information.

On the eve of May 1, the general coordinator of the LAB union, Garbiñe Aranburu , has visited the Boulevard programme of Radio Euskadi and has been critical of the employers, who have said that it has "made labour relations precarious" and "devalued wages", andhas"built a story" about absenteeism: "Absenteeism itself does not exist: the employers come in attack and have built a whole story about it."

The Ministry suspended its meeting with the Strike Committee and the Autonomous Communities on Thursday to address the conflict over the Framework Statute on the grounds that one of the parties had "breached" its part. The trade unions have stated that the Ministry's proposal to set up specific tables in the communities is legally "unworkable" without changing the State rules and have therefore refused to do so.

Each union has filed a separate appeal with the High Court of Justice of the Basque Country. They have requested the suspension of the Employment Regulation Dossier, which provides for 242 redundancies, because it is disproportionate and unjustified.  Today the workers are back on the streets in Bilbao. 

On the other hand, the Zumarraga Hospital will join the protest from 27 April and the hospitals in Bizkaia from 27 May. They have decided to take this new step in view of the fact that the strike in force "has not caused any anger".

The doctors at Osakidetza and Osasunbidea are informing their superiors that they will not perform the voluntary overtime that doctors do in the afternoon and that helps reduce waiting lists, known as "pawns," which will mean, among other things, a reduction in afternoon surgeries.