Pepe Álvarez will run for a 3rd and last time period as head of UGT | Economy | EUROtoday

The basic secretary of the General Union of Workers (UGT), Pepe Álvarez, will search re-election on the union's subsequent Confederal Congress, which is able to happen from 25 to 27 November in Barcelona. He introduced this on Thursday within the Catalan capital, on the assembly of the Confederal Executive Committee. Álvarez has led UGT since 2016, when he took over from Cándido Méndez. “The union has to be proud of the work it has done during these eight years, thinking of the organisation as a whole,” mentioned Álvarez. If he’s re-elected, the Asturian chief would start a 3rd and last time period, for the reason that union's statutes set up a most of three consecutive phrases. Sources from the organisation point out that no different candidates are in sight.

The date of the union's forty fourth Confederal Congress was determined on the finish of final 12 months. At that point, Alvarez didn’t make clear whether or not he would attend, a query that has remained open till at the moment.

Álvarez, who turned 68 in March, was born in Belmonte de Miranda, a city within the inside of Asturias. He joined UGT in 1975, aged 19, when he was residing in Barcelona and had simply began working on the metalworking firm Maquinista Terrestre y Marítima (now a part of the French multinational Alstom). In 1990 he was elected chief of the union in Catalonia, a place he held till 2016, when he took the reins of UGT on the nationwide stage. He took over from Méndez, who led the union for 22 years.

The first time he stood, Álvarez achieved a slender victory: he acquired 51.1% of the votes. He was up in opposition to the Secretary General of Services for Mobility and Consumption (FeSMC), Miguel Ángel Cilleros. However, on the forty third Congress (held in 2021) he acquired broad help from 86% of the delegates. In addition, Álvarez was elected vice-president of the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) in May 2019.

The UGT chief overcame the principle problem to his management in October 2022, when Pedro Hojas, the then basic secretary of the highly effective Federation of Industry, Construction and Agriculture (Fica UGT) and three members of his govt resigned because of variations with Álvarez. After Hojas' departure, he was changed by the union's quantity two, Mariano Hoya.

If he confirms his re-election, given the foreseeable absence of an alternate, Álvarez would face his third and last time period on the head of the UGT, which in precept would lengthen till 2028. “My decision has a lot to do with the challenges we have ahead. It is worth it,” mentioned Álvarez. Among these challenges he talked about the extraordinarily excessive unemployment charge in Spain (11.3%), the very best in Europe.

When she grew to become secretary basic, Mariano Rajoy's PP was nonetheless in energy in 2016. Only two years later, Pedro Sánchez grew to become president of the federal government by way of a vote of no confidence. This was the beginning of a robust path to extend the minimal wage, agreements that UGT and the opposite main class union, CC OO, have at all times been a part of.

The two consultant organisations of staff have additionally reached vital consensus with the employers since Álvarez has headed UGT: the principle ones are the collective bargaining agreements for 2018 and 2023 and, above all, the labour reform on the finish of 2021. The new framework for labour relations has sunk short-term employment, an endemic evil of the Spanish economic system. Before the reform, 26% of staff had a brief contract, whereas now it’s only 16%. “We are with temporary employment in European terms. We have had something to do with it,” commented the overall secretary of UGT.

In his speech, Álvarez has defended these agreements, in addition to the reforms of the pension system lately, the primary to hyperlink the updating of the quantities with the CPI and the second to strengthen earnings. He additionally highlighted the decision of the European Committee of Social Rights on the price of dismissal in Spain, pushed by a declare offered by the union and which has opened the talk on its reform. “I could spend an hour talking about the changes that have taken place in this country. We have to be proud of them because we have all managed to achieve them together,” Álvarez added.