The main focus of the strike committee's criticism is the minimum services established for these first few days. Rubén Bailo, a member of the Strike Committee, accused the city council of limiting the workforce's ability to protest. “They have stolen our right to strike by imposing abusive minimum services,” he said, arguing that these levels have prevented the walkout from being visible on Zaragoza's streets.
According to Bailo, among the workers who have been able to join the walkout, participation has reached “almost 80%,” although he acknowledged that this figure applies to a limited portion of the workforce because of the minimum services. The workers' main demands include recovering purchasing power, improvements in work-life balance and equality, and better conditions for weekend contracts, which the unions consider precarious.
COMMITTEE DEMANDS THAT FCC RETURN TO NEGOTIATIONS
The committee also maintains that FCC is practically sticking to the proposal that workers rejected in June and has not made sufficient progress to bring the two sides closer. Bailo said the company “has not sat down to negotiate with the Strike Committee” to prevent the walkout and considers it essential to resume those talks in order to call it off. The unions are also once again raising the approximately 10 million euros more that, they argue, the contractor will receive, and are demanding that part of this increase be passed on to workers.
Zaragoza City Council offers a very different assessment of participation in the strike. The city councillor responsible for Mobility, José Miguel Rodrigo, said that during the previous night the walkout stood “at around 5%” and that on Wednesday morning it was approximately “5 or 6%.” “We hope the impact will be as limited as possible,” he said, before calling on union representatives to sit down with the company and “not get up until they reach an agreement.”
The demonstrations will continue on Thursday with a morning gathering in Plaza del Pilar and another in the afternoon in Plaza de España, the latter planned as one of the main protest events. The committee expects workers from different shifts to gather there to show their opposition to FCC's proposal and is, for now, maintaining the indefinite strike as the Fiestas del Pilar approach.
