Four days after the Grand Depart Pays Basque, the start of the Tour de France from Bilbao and the dispute over three stages in Basque territory, the Ertzaintza unions continue their fight against the Basque Government. This Tuesday around 2,500 agents, according to the organizers, have demonstrated through the streets of Vitoria-Gasteiz demanding improvements in their working conditions, with two stops at Ajuria Enea, the official residence of the Lehendakari, and a few meters away, the Lehendakaritza, headquarters of the Presidency of the Executive.
This march has been supported by the Erne, Esan, Euspel and Sipe unions and the Ertzainas asyndical movement in struggle, and constitutes the last chapter of an escalation of protests that took another turn starting on May 8, when the asindical group brought together about 2,000 agents in Bilbao (4,000 according to the organizers).
The ertzainas who have been mobilizing are basically demanding salary improvements, the renewal of the Basque Police agreement and the modernization of the resources available to them. They allude to the “fed up” within this police force and point out that conditions are worse than in many local police forces. In addition, and this is an important key, they threaten the Basque Government with boycotting the Grand Depart, a sporting and social milestone in the recent history of the Basque Country.
The demonstration of this Tuesday has been answered by the Basque Government and, also, by the Chiefs of the Ertzaintza.
The spokesman for the Basque Government, Bingen Zupiria, has assured this Tuesday that he “does not conceive” that the ertzainas do not guarantee citizen and public safety during the Tour, as they have always done. In addition, he has called on the unions to “return to the table” for negotiations, given the “permanent call to recover dialogue” by the Executive.
“Those responsible for the Basque institutions, in which they provide their services professionally, more than 100,000 men and women who are public workers in different fields, some in the field of security, others in health, others in the education, others in transportation, we do not conceive, nor would we be allowed, that a worker, a public service professional, does not fulfill the functions entrusted to him when he is working”, Zupiria pointed out.
The Executive spokesman added that “the men and women who have the responsibility of guaranteeing the safety of people and public safety in this country are professionals who, during all these years, since the Ertzaintza emerged, have shown what their qualification and professional performance. “We don’t expect anything else,” he said.
Likewise, he explained that in recent days and in these last hours “there have been permanent contacts that seek to facilitate this formality to return to the table.” In addition, he recalled that the proposal made by the Department of Security contemplates 37 specific measures, which are not “an occurrence or an invention”, but are related to “matters that have been the subject of dialogue and conversation” between both parties ” every week and every month before.”
Bingen Zupiria has admitted that “everything can be improved through dialogue and negotiation, as long as they are not exceeded and that they do not want to establish unachievable objectives as a sine qua non condition”, such as the linear increase in wages.
“The remuneration of civil servants, of all and all the civil servants of the Spanish State, work in the Administration that they work have been established by law for 12 years for all and for all,” he stressed.
He also recalled that there have been salary increases year after year, which have meant a salary increase of more than 18% for all workers, and he has ensured that the Basque Executive legally “cannot break that budgetary and salary margin”.
On the other hand, the Ertzaintza agents have received a letter signed by the Chief of the Ertzaintza and by all the intermediate and territorial chiefs in which they are asked to “rise to the occasion”.
“Getting the trust of the public and maintaining the high professional prestige achieved has required a lot of effort (…) as ertzainak we will comply with our upcoming commitments, giving back to the society to which we owe what it has given us so many times, as sign of our identity”, they demand.
