The current economic and social situation is certainly dramatic. Since the crisis began, was only the working class has paid the consequences of a situation caused by the large capital, who after years of speculation financiera e inmobiliaria desmedida han provocado un estado de bancarrota de la economía española. La crisis, aún habiendo tenido una transcendencia internacional, ha chocado frontalmente con la débil y precaria estructura económica del Estado español. No podía ser de otra manera cuando el patrón de crecimiento económico en la última década se ha basado esencialmente en la especulación inmobiliaria y en los servicios de bajo coste.
Los respectivos gobiernos tanto del Partido Popular como del PSOE han edificado un modelo económico frágil, escasamente productivo y orientado hacia el beneficio rápido. Al mismo tiempo, tal modelo económico ha consolidado un mercado de trabajo de naturaleza poor with high rates of temporary and accidents, overtime abuse, business fraud in contractual matters and social security, etc. Thus, although between 1999 and 2006 corporate profits rose by 73%, the working class was only improve their working conditions, but rather the opposite. For example, between 1995 and 2005 the English working class lost purchasing power, about 4% less. On the other hand, in the last twenty years the temporary employment has barely budged in the bottom 30% and the measures taken to address this high rate have been ineffective and sometimes counterproductive to the interests of the working class. That is, the growth cycle economic end of the previous century and the beginning of not generate real wealth and welfare for the entire working class. In times of growth were privatized profits. Today, those losses are socialized.
is why the current processes and dynamics are not accidental and prior to the crisis, the English labor market and had the shortcomings with regard to instability and temporality that have caused the collapse and subsequent job losses. The failure of the welfare state and social protection in Spain are not a result of the crisis but one of the reasons for it. Already in February 2005 warned CCOO Critical Sector in a study on "desconvergencia" that was occurring with respect to the European Union on social spending. In this sense, the growth cycle of the English economy that began in 1995 was not used to improve social protection and closer to Europe but the trend had been reversed. Social protection expenditure in Spain represented 24% of GDP in 1993 and the European Union, 28.8%. Therefore, the difference was 4.8 points. Well, in 2000 social spending in Spain was 20.1% and although the European Union's expenditure had been reduced to 27.3%. The differential had increased to 7.2 points. The
neoliberal propaganda zero deficit had been forged by a drastic reduction in social spending in a context of economic growth. In parallel, was used in a scandalous way the Social Security surplus to balance the accounts of the State, covering the hole in the tax reform and transferring resources to social protection to the highest incomes. On the other hand, the economy does not grow infinitely but depends on cycles and fluctuations of the market. This is a basic law of economics that seemed oblivious to the elites of neoliberalism. The crisis that would follow would only exacerbate the structural problems of the English economy and their vulnerability from the standpoint of social and employment.
Job destruction is undoubtedly the biggest problem currently affecting the English economy and the entire working class of our country. And the problem becomes even greater when social protection is insufficient to meet subsistence needs of the unemployed and growing pockets of poverty. A country that spends on social protection only 20% of GDP can not afford to improve conditions of unemployment benefits, taking into account that the problem of unemployment in Spain is structural and not due solely to the evolution of the economy.
could say unemployment that characterized the English economic model and part of it as one of its most visible. It is true that unemployment has increased because of the crisis but the crisis before the problem was not just pointless. Do not forget that in the last fifteen years the number of unemployed has dropped from just 2.000.000de affected reaching up to 3,000,000 in times of economic growth.
In the third quarter of 2008 there is a turning point and unemployment rises to historical shares, from 2,500,000 to 4,000,000 unemployed in just a year and a half. In a dynamic of socialization of losses and permanent sacrifice of workers and workers is difficult to anticipate a day when the situation forward. The indexes do not seem to accompany and 2010 job losses are not only slowed but has exploded, affecting particularly vulnerable to three groups such as youth, women and immigrants.
In the Labour Force Survey (LFS) of the first quarter of the unemployment rate stood at 20.05% and the number of unemployed has reached the figure of 4,612,700 unemployed, 286,000 more than in the past quarter of 2009, 602,000 more than twelve months ago and 2,000,000 more than last year and a half. A country that produces 2,000,000 million unemployed in 18 months is a country socially dysfunctional and suffers from active economic policies at least to alleviate the bleeding in terms of job losses. In such circumstances, Spain is a social ill that is not even given the appropriate treatment or antidotes as these are given by those who have caused the disease.
We said in earlier lines of social protection in Spain is insufficient. In this case, attempts to improve it have been unsuccessful or at least have meaning to the gallery. Unsuccessful because we can qualify the aid of 420 euros for the unemployed approved by the central government last year. Such aid, granted to the unemployed with no financial benefit from the 1 January 2009 is not only inadequate from a material perspective but also requires some requirements that most of those affected can not fulfill. For example, the aid is incompatible with the perception of other social benefits, income and minimum income required to have no more than 468 euros, ie 75% of the minimum wage. At present the central government should consider an extension of term unemployed universal if it really aims to improve the untenable situation of millions of workers that are beyond the time maximum unemployment benefit or assistance without any minimum income to survive. Remember that currently 1,300,000 and English families with all members unemployed.
has been shown that the central government's intentions when it comes to combating the economic crisis and unemployment are the same recipes as proposed by the employer. Such intentions have been revealed in two projects of the Zapatero government's neoliberal higher profile on the one hand, the proposed revision of the Pact of Toledo and the public pension system and on the other hand, the document labor market reform presented by the government on 12 April. With the former, the government's objective is initiate a gradual process towards the impoverishment of the public pension system and strengthen the role of complementary social security, approaching, and, to a mixed model based on a weak public social security and welfare assistance and social protection of private . The root of the draft revised neoliberal pension system is characterized by placing the debate on spending and not income, working class loading on the increase in Social Security revenues as last July's own central government proposed a reduction in employer contributions of 2%.
Delay by decree until retirement age 67 years and extend the period for calculating the contributions required to generate a pension from the current 15 years to 25 years are profoundly anti-social measures that show the true face of a government allied with business interests. Therefore, was determining the success of the demonstrations called by unions throughout the English territory on 23 February in protest against pension reforms proposed by the government.
respect to the proposed labor market reforms introduced by the government on April 12 trade unions and employers, the central executive is pursuing a full-scale welfare reform in four main themes and objectives:
- Reduction of redundancy payments. The government wants to generalize the building contract for permanent contracts (compensation of 33 days) labor reform introduced in 1997 with the aim of reducing high rates of temporary employment. This contract gradually replace the regular 45-day contract for compensation. In parallel, the Bill provides for the implementation in Spain of the "Austrian Model" consisting of a new monthly contribution as severance pay to generate a stock worker ownership arising from a business background but draws the salary of the worker (Austria's contribution is 1.53% of gross salary). To this extent, the English government expects only cheapen the dismissal but seems unaware that the model applied in Austria is based on a much higher social state into English. For example, Austria's unemployment rate is 5% versus 20% in Spain and Austria, the unemployment benefit is indefinite. Do you mean the government of the PSOE also extrapolate the Austrian social reality of the impoverished English reality or is it just to reduce redundancy?.
- Extended the contract of training. This measure is justified by the government to improve youth employment rates, but without regard to the precariousness that entails a types of contracts exempt from the wage ceilings agreed in the agreements and that no right to unemployment or retirement. The government aims to increase the age limit to enter the training contract from the current 21 years to 24 years.
- Removal of restrictions on temporary agency. Through the reform bill, the government affirms its willingness to remove legal obstacles to the employment agencies (ETT, S). For example, it is proposed to extend the temporary agency as the construction sector where their implementation was very limited. At the same time private companies enhances relocation.
- Greater flexibility in time contracts part. The government's goal here is the complete deregulation of working hours for part-time workers so that companies can modify the working hours at will and with minimal notice to identify and which could even agree to apply overtime.
Ultimately, we are facing a labor reform deeply prejudicial against the interests of the working class. The negative attitude of unions of class to central government's measures require us to rethink a new scenario and new patterns in social dialogue table. The government has to change the parameters of the negotiation if it is to reach an agreement and if they really expected to finish with the social dislocations and job losses, has to approach the negotiation from a social and active labor market policy thrust to promote job creation without loss of rights, improving social protection, protection of the public pension system , progressive tax policies, etc..
The United Left 100 proposals for a social outlet for the crisis, presented by the organization last February are certainly a core with which to work and to propose alternatives to the neoliberal offensive of the employers and the government. Causality require temporary contracts, gradually increasing the minimum wage up 60% of the average wage or reducing the working week to 35 hours without reducing salaries are tangible proposals on a real basis, the need, first, to monitor the temporary and secondly, to improve purchasing power most vulnerable groups. Job creation is undoubtedly another great challenge and to make needed economic resources. Izquierda Unida offers a fund of 10,000 euros plus 1,800 of the Autonomous Communities to undertake a proactive plan to create jobs, away from the event of Plan E and empty words of government employment. The union and political left has to take action and to do so without complex. It is necessary an ideological thrust from the left. Rearmament that promotes social dialogue and joint mobilization. It has been shown that the mobilization of workers has been an extra incentive and motivation to maintain firm position of trade unions at the negotiating table. That is the way forward.
few weeks ago, Professor of Labour Law at the University of Valencia, Carlos Alfonso Mellado, published in the Foundation on May 1 CCOO a study stating a great truth: the solution to the crisis is not labor reform that "many voices accredited" demand with great zeal and it is not because the crisis not rooted in the labor market but in a collapse of financial markets (and in the case of Spain, in the real estate bubble burst and because of a production model based on highly vulnerable sectors). Therefore, the alternative is not to reform the same labor market and even less if the reform is based on the dismissal cheaper or more flexible industrial relations within the company.
In any case and in view of the current situation, the central government seems to ignore the precarious employment and social million citizens. The government recently announced an adjustment that will affect the salary of officials the future of pensions and maternity benefits are a blow to social and welfare state already fragile. Specifically, the government implemented in 2010 a 5% pay cut and wage freeze in 2011 in the civil service. Likewise, in 2011 will freeze the pension increases, other than non-contributory and the lowest, while the transitional arrangements will be deleted on partial retirement. You can remove the retrospective nature of aid dependency law in 2011 and abolish the aid of 2,500 euros for motherhood. Finally, the government reduced by EUR 6.045 million public investment state between 2010 and 2011, a period which also apply a cut of 600 million in official development assistance. That is, more syrup stick against the working class. Against this, we have no choice but to express our rejection, going out in the context of a general mobilization and social dialogue recover from the requirement to provide a solution to the complicated situation facing millions of citizens. The response of unions and political organizations must be strong and for that we have to set the stage, shedding some hindrances and aspire to more than just managing the effects of the crisis. And we'll say it as often as needed: that the crisis the pay for those who have caused. Pending settlement of such a need, social conflict will be served.
Document adopted at the plenary of the World of Work PSUC viu.
Barcelona, \u200b\u200bMay 15, 2010.
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