The May Day celebration took place in Valencia in a calm atmosphere. The demonstration called by UGT-PV and CCOO-PV left from the Plaza de San Agustín around 11 in the morning and ran through the center of the city, to the rhythm of dolçaina and tabal, to Navarro Reverter street in València , right in front of the headquarters of the Valencian Employment Service, the current Labora.
Approximately 5,000 people have arrived there, according to the Government Delegation, who have participated in this protest march, but calmed by proclamations and slogans. All despite the fact that their main leaders have expressed how these are “complicated times, but what are they going to tell us workers who know so much about the crisis?” This is how the general secretary of CCOO-PV, Ana García Alcolea, expressed herself in her final speech, in which she demanded improvements in the labor rights of the working class “now that business profits are at an absolute record.”
For his part, the general secretary of UGT-PV, Ismael Sáez, has assured that “this May Day is full of well-understood harmony” and has defended the role of unions in social dialogue. He has also demanded the reduction of the working day from 40 to 37 hours, a “commitment from the Government that we must achieve in this legislature. We want to improve salaries, the situation that has occurred in the Canary Islands is not reasonable, where citizens are tired of a tourism with little added value that condemns the workers of the islands to having the second lowest salaries in Spain,” he added.
In both speeches there has been space for assessing the political context, after the five days in April that the President of the Government took to reflect. “We demand democratic respect,” asked the union leader. Sáez has also defended democratic values ??and has asked workers to mobilize in the face of the next European elections.
Nor has Sáez ignored the problem of regional underfinancing in his speech and has asked for the forgiveness of the Valencian debt. “We want a new financing system, one that does not depend on nationalist tensions (…) It has a lot to do with democratic quality and respect for institutions,” said Sáez.
Among the dozens of protesters, the Minister of Science and Innovation and current general secretary of the PSPV, Diana Morant, has also been seen, who tomorrow meets with the president of the Generalitat Valenciana for the first time. Morant, who came accompanied by a good part of her team – also the European candidates Leire Pajín and Sandra Gómez – stated that the Government of Spain is going to continue building “a better society” despite “everything, the mud , of the noise and the politics that he wants to destroy”.
For his part, the Ombudsman of Compromís, Joan Baldoví, has defended that “the process of debasement of politics has one objective: that progressive governments cannot legislate, govern or advance social achievements,” he defended. Likewise, he has asked for a reduction in the working day, from 40 to 32 hours, and has considered that “it is a possible horizon to have a better, happier and more dignified life.”
