Thousands of people, about 2,200 according to the Guàrdia Urbana and 8,000 according to the unions, have demonstrated this Sunday in the center of Barcelona to celebrate the First of May and demand the need forraise wages and contain rising prices in a scenario where inflation is soaring.
The demonstration, convened by CCOO and the UGT, started from the Plaza de Urquinaona before noon, with the slogan ‘The solution: raise wages, contain prices, end inequalities’. At 11.30, the scheduled time for the march, sounded in the square ‘La gallineta’ of Lluís Llach, and the heat was considerable. So much so that the leather jacket of the Business Director, Roger Torrent, it seemed excessive. Torrent spent a moment greeting and then the headline and prominence were of the unionists.
Before embarking on the route along the Via Laietana, the general secretaries of CCOO and the UGT of Catalonia, Xavier Pacheco i Camil Rossrespectively, have demanded the need to raise wages, and have warned the employer that they will not sign any collective agreement that does not include salary review clauses. In addition, the trade unions have stated that if this condition is not met, there will be mobilizations and they will demand that the indexation of wages to inflation be done by law.
By ages
The demonstration went along a Via Laietana with lanes cut by the street remodeling works. The average age was considerable, and the bulk of the protest did not consist of a large group of young people.
At 11.50, the protesters began to descend and at 12.30 they were already at the end of the Via Laietana. A few meters before the Plaza de Idrissa Diallo, formerly dedicated to Antonio López, whose name, like his statue, was evicted from the space due to his links with the slave trade, Pacheco and Ros gave speeches in which they have defended the weight of trade unionism and its usefulness. As an example, they cited the increase in defined contracts.
The two spokesmen have rejected the Ukrainian war (someone at some point in the march was displaying a Russian flag) and the day ended with the choral singing of ‘La internacional’ and ‘Els Segadors’.