The main banking unions, FINE, CCOO and UGT, estimate that 75.8% of the 80,451 bank employees represented by the Spanish Banking Association (AEB) are following the strike called for today, the first in the sector for 40 years.
By entities, they quantify the monitoring of the 26,776 employees of Santander at 77%, that of the 22,180 at BBVA at 74%, at 79% that of the 11,108 at Sabadell, and at 71% that of the 4,205 at Bankinter. The call has been “historic”, say the banks.
Bank management sources doubt the percentages offered by the banks. They assure that in the partial strikes carried out so far the unions’ figures have not been adjusted to the final ones. The AEB does not currently have data on monitoring the protest.
The demands focus on salary improvements after three years of inflation and after the high profits of the banks. The unions demand an increase of 13% between 2024 and 2026, compared to the AEB’s proposal of 8.25%. The unions are asking for an additional single payment of 3% and one more day of rest per year, measures that the AEB opposes.
These demands affect Santander, BBVA, Sabadell or Bankinter. Other banks such as CaixaBank, Unicaja, Ibercaja and the rest of the former savings banks integrated into Ceca are not affected by the protests because they recently reached an agreement with the unions to raise salaries by 11% until 2026.
The unions affirm that “the AEB is left alone, demonstrating a total lack of responsibility and support for its staff.” “We demand that AEB entities listen to their staff and offer an agreement, like the one signed by the Savings and Credit Cooperative employers,” they say.
In a statement, the AEB reiterated this Friday its “will and commitment to reach an agreement” on the agreement. “We have always opted for consensus with union organizations, through a process of permanent dialogue,” states the association. “We express our respect to the convening union organizations, as well as our best willingness to try to find the necessary meeting points that will allow us to reach an agreement in the next meetings,” he says.
The main concentrations were held today in Boadilla del Monte, in Madrid, where the Santander shareholders meeting is being held, as well as in Barcelona and Sabadell, according to the unions themselves.
On the Santander board, the unions have intervened to demand salary increases. Noemi Trabado, from CCOO, has demanded “increases in line with the historical profit of the sector.” Julia Ochoa Alba, from UGT, has lamented the “dramatic duality” between “extraordinary benefits” and a staff that “cannot celebrate anything because the work environment is extremely hard.” Silvia Armendariz, from the CGT, has asked that “the benefits be shared among those who generate them” and has described it as “extremely urgent for the bank to show a positive gesture.”
