Tannery strike averted in Spain
After nine months of negotiations and no tangible agreement, Spain’s 3,000 tannery workers were due to go on strike from November 29 to December 1 in pursuit of their claims.
No collective agreement had been signed between the unions and employers and a wide gulf between the salary and fringe benefits demanded and what the employers were prepared to offer remained.
Strike action was threatened as unions wanted a three-year pay deal to keep salaries in line with inflation until 2025, plus an improvement in medical benefits, a shortening of the working week, days off and a loyalty bonus.
At the eleventh hour and after a six-hour meeting with employers, a pay deal broadly in line with the union’s demands was hammered out in a framework agreement.
The core of the agreement were pay rises of 4% for 2022, followed by 3% for the years until 2025, plus a four-hour reduction in working hours from 2023.
