REGIONAL UNION MARCHES AGAINST CUTS AND PRIVATISATION

SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE, Thursday March 25 2010

ONE THOUSAND regional trade unionists protested against government cuts and privatisation in Tenerife's capital on Thursday evening.

by JAMES TWEEDIE

The demonstration by the Intersindical Canaria (IC) union was in opposition to privatisation and cuts in public services by both the Socialist Party (PSOE) national government and the regional alliance of the Popular party (PP) and the Canarian Coalition (CC).

Protesters gathered in Santa Cruz' Plaza Weyler and marched to a rally in the central Plaza Candelaria in a mass of white, blue and yellow Canarian flags while a speaker van blared out slogans and political songs.

The procession was led by a mock priest and pallbearers carrying a black coffin to signify the funeral of public services, especially health.

Unions have criticised the government for bailing out crisis-hit banks to the tune of €50 billion, while cutting public spending by the same amount and pushing ahead with privatisation and raising the retirement age to 67.

The IC is also opposed to the wage freeze negotiated between the two main union federations CC.OO and UGT, employers and government, along with “the so called Labour Reform” which which it says will increase “precarity” or job insecurity.

Banners read: “We must stop employers' and government aggression” “Canaries say enough” and “Not one step back.”

The IC pointed out that 300,000 people were currently unemployed in the Canaries – 30 per cent of the workforce and nine per cent more than in Spain as a whole. A similar proportion of the population live below the poverty line.

Workers in the islands work on average 16 hours more for €450 less per month less than nationally, and part-time workers are paid an average of just €4.82 per hour.

Wages in the archipelago are rising at a rate of just 1.2 per cent per year compared with 2.7 per cent nationally – all to the benefit of employers, said the IC.

It further alleged that Canarian businesspeople had saved €62 billion in taxes by depositing the money in the Canaries Investment Reserve (RIC) – but that these funds had apparently disappeared.

The IC, with eight or nine thousand members, is not affiliated to any political party but the demonstration was supported by the United Left (IU) party and the left-wing separatist Canarian Nationalist Alternative (ANC).

IU spokesman Ramón Trujillo said that the march was “an attempt to raise public consciousness that labour rights, pensions and the welfare state are getting worse.”

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