The Ertzaintza is experiencing a conflict with few precedents three weeks after the Basque Country hosts the event that will require the greatest police deployment in its recent history, the start of the Tour de France and the three-stage dispute in Basque territory. The substance of this conflict has to do with the demand for labor improvements by the agents; However, this demand has led to a total clash between the three leading actors: the Basque Government, the Basque Police unions and an “uninhibited” collective, which has burst into the conflict with force and threatens to block the exit of the Big Boucle.
A good example of the extent to which the climate has become rare around this conflict was experienced this Monday. The police unions ErNE, Esan, Euspel and Sipe accused the Lehendakari and the Basque Government of “declaring war” on the Ertzaintza, after statements in which Iñigo Urkullu warned that the Basque Police “must be a professional body” and that “no institution, not even the Ertzaintza, can afford to lose the respect of society.”
A day later, a few meters from a protest attended by more than a thousand agents, the Security Councilor, Josu Erkoreka, described the declaration of the unions as “absolute nonsense” and pointed to the third actor in discord in this conflict. , the Ertzainas asyndical collective in struggle. In his opinion, the negotiations with the unions were on track until “a movement called asindical frightened” the union centrals, and “forced” them to get up from the table.
The counselor’s statements summarize the government’s point of view on the conflict that is taking place in the Basque Police. From the Basque Executive they basically point out that the Security Department had been maintaining a normal negotiation on the working conditions of the agents, until the moment the aforementioned group broke in.
From Security, in addition, they have been indicating that the bulk of the agents earn an average of 2,500 euros net per month, thanks to supplements for seniority, professional career or overtime. Erkoreka has also criticized that the unions have made “some statements that do not obey reality at all”, and has indicated that the 2012 agreement has been modified three times with union agreement, in 2012, in 2018 and in 2023, while other labor improvements have been agreed.
The Basque Executive and the jeltzale environment have finally slipped that behind these protests there is “someone from outside the Ertzaintza, without a name and without a face”, alluding to the non-union collective, who would like to destabilize this police force. Reference has also been made, more or less explicitly, to the similarities of this group with organizations such as Jusapol or Jucil.
The Ertzainas collective in struggle made itself known on May 8. Its debut was a demonstration in the center of Bilbao attended by some 2,000 agents, 4,000 according to the organizers. Bearing in mind that the Basque Police has 8,000 ertzainas, it was a full-fledged show of force.
The call was channeled through social networks, outside the unions, haranguing the agents to meet in the face of “the neglect of the department together with the collusion of some unions.” From there, other mass rallies have been repeated.
The majority centrals of the Ertzaintza, ErNE, Esan Euspel and Sipe, have responded to the emergence of Ertzainas in struggle by retaking union unity.
The spokesman for the union unit, Unai Garabieta, has indicated that from these centrals “they have not known how to channel the fed up of the agents”, so that they have taken note and are “all together”.
The Ertzainas collective in struggle has taken the hand of the unions, betting on a unity of action that, for the moment, remains timid. In any case, they have made it clear that their objective is not to become a new plant, but to unite the existing ones. “We have not come to divide the unions, but to unite themâ€, they indicate.
At the moment, the union unit and Ertzainas in struggle have not shared their demands. The unions allude to the need to address better wages, the renewal of the agreement more than a decade later or the modernization of the resources available to them.
Ertzainas en lucha, meanwhile, has a list of 40 measures, including a salary increase of up to 1,100 euros per month.
The conflict obviously has political derivatives beyond the strictly labor issue. A part of the Ertzaintza, one of the key institutions of Basque self-government, has collided with the PNV at a particularly delicate moment. The jeltzales come from their first electoral setback in many years and face a delicate appointment with the polls on July 23. In between, the Basque Country is preparing to celebrate the Grand Depart Pays Basque, the long-awaited start of the Tour de France. The gala round is presented as an international showcase to project the new image of the Basque Country to the world.
It is about no less than three stages in Basque territory, a demanding exam that, even with the wind from the side, can reveal weaknesses. A labor dispute can call into question the international image of the Basque Country, the reputation of Basque institutions for managing international events and, in a Basque sense, the capacity of the Basque Government to manage fluctuations in key self-government institutions.
