The Pensioners Movement of Euskal Herria warns that half of Basque pensioners are women with «miserable pensions»
Thousands of people have demonstrated this Saturday in the Basque capitals in support of the call from the Pensioners Movement of Euskal Herria under the slogan ‘Soldata eta pentsio duinak hemen eta denontzat. For fair and efficient minimum wages and pensions’, joined by all unions, to demand fair minimum wages and pensions «now, here and for everyone».
In the morning, pensioners mobilized in Vitoria-Gasteiz and in the afternoon they marched through the streets of Bilbao and San Sebastián, to defend and demand fair wages and pensions, «now, here and for everyone, to ensure that all pensioners and workers can access dignified living conditions».
Moments before the start of the march in Bilbao from the Sagrado Corazón, the spokesperson for the Pensioners Movement of Euskal Herria, Andrea Uña, explained that they are carrying out these mobilizations after meetings with all unions, warning that «it cannot be that while large financial companies make more and more money, and obscene money at that, most pensioners and many workers are left with miserable wages and pensions».
She also pointed out that half of the pensioners in the Basque Autonomous Community are women with «miserable pensions», demanding that the gender gap be closed so they can «live better».
Uña highlighted the strong support for the demonstration from social movements, women’s groups, and students, emphasizing that it is a «plural» mobilization open to «all citizens, which has the support of the majority of them».
Before the march began, ELA’s Studies Director, Aitor Murgia, stated that the struggles «for fair wages and pensions go hand in hand» because «we will hardly have fair pensions if we do not have fair wages».
In this regard, he criticized Confebask’s refusal to negotiate a minimum wage for Euskadi with the «excuse, as always, of business competitiveness», accusing the Basque business association of «closing the door for many people to escape labor precarity».
He also warned the President, Imanol Pradales, that in this matter, he «should not remain neutral and should ask the business sector to sit down and negotiate».
Murgia considered the minimum wage «imposed by the State is insufficient to have a dignified life in Euskal Herria» and asserted that «deciding it here and significantly increasing it would improve the lives of many people, especially the most precarious ones, who are predominantly women, migrants, young people, and people with disabilities».
On her part, LAB’s General Coordinator, Garbiñe Aranburu, explained that the purpose of Saturday’s mobilization is to call for a «more equitable distribution of wealth, fair wages and pensions, and the ability to decide our wages and pensions here».
After mentioning that over 100,000 signatures have been collected in support of the Popular Legislative Initiative (ILP) to equalize minimum pensions to the SMI, Aranburu warned that now, «it is up to the Basque Parliament and the political parties not to turn their backs on that demand».
Regarding the SMI, she emphasized that they are «fighting for present and future conditions», facing a business sector that «clearly advocates for exploitation and shirks its negotiation duty».
She also criticized the business sector for trying to link the minimum wage debate to absenteeism and conveying the message that if certain rights are to be «advanced», cuts must be accepted. «We will not accept it,» she reiterated, «they will have us against them, and we will continue to fight for a fair wage». She vowed to gather «thousands of signatures in favor of the ILP to decide the interprofessional minimum wage here» and to demand that they have «full authority for it».
Aranburu demanded that the Basque Government «pressure the business sector and stop supporting a business sector that promotes conflict and renounces its negotiation duty», while believing that Pradales’ Government «must show greater courage and determination in defending the interprofessional minimum wage». «We will continue in the fight to achieve fairer wages and pensions,» she concluded.
MANIFESTO
The demonstration in Bilbao, marked by chants of ‘Gora pensionistas’, ‘Terrorism is not being able to make ends meet’, ‘If the government does not listen, we will continue the struggle’ or ‘Without mobilization, there is no solution’, was accompanied by ‘txistus’ leading the march and hundreds of people wearing red vests and scarves.
At the Bilbao City Hall, where the march concluded, the Pensioners Movement of Euskal Herria read a manifesto warning that «hundreds of thousands of Basque people cannot meet their basic needs, with pensioners receiving low or miserable pensions and workers earning the minimum interprofessional wage (SMI) set at the national level, which is insufficient to cover the cost of living in the Basque Country».
They denounced this situation as «unacceptable, while large financial and energy companies set profit records and business profits grow four times more percentage-wise than wages».
They also criticized that «fiscal policies continue to benefit capital incomes at the expense of labor incomes, the rich are getting richer at the expense of the majority of society, and pension reforms perpetuate increasingly meager minimum pensions further from the Interprofessional Minimum Wage».
In addition, they rebuked the Basque and Navarre business associations for refusing to negotiate and agree on a minimum wage «in line with the socioeconomic conditions in Hego Euskal Herria».
«It remains to be seen what response the governments of Gasteiz and Iruñea will give to the demand of the Pensioners Movement of Euskal Herria to supplement minimum pensions to match the SMI,» they pointed out.
According to the Pensioners Movement of Euskal Herria, «the challenge of mobilizations is significant, but it must be seen as a further step in the initiatives to be promoted in the coming months». They will continue with the signature collection campaign in support of the ILP, which they will present to the Basque Parliament on May 15, the day they have also called for a demonstration.
WORKERS’ DAY
On the other hand, they stated that May 1, International Workers’ Day, «should be another appointment for mobilization and advocacy where workers, pensioners, and other social and popular groups share the demands raised, as well as others that are increasingly concerning».
«The neoliberal capitalist system we are confronted with, with its consequences of exploitation, oppression, wars, and rearmament, imposes the need to promote increasingly broad and unified social mobilizations to halt the social and political deterioration we are immersed in both in Euskal Herria and internationally,» they concluded.