Urkullu has a problem on the street and the person responsible is the 'friendly' union of the PNV

In the Basque Country, 209 strikes were held from January to June. And in Spain as a whole, until May, 380, according to data from the Employment Department of the Basque Government. Labor conflict in Euskadi is a reality that has put the Lendakari, Iñigo Urkullu, and the PNV on guard at the beginning of the electoral course. The nationalists accuse the radical nationalist left and the unions of devising a strategy of attrition, preparing a “hot autumn” in the streets and projecting a
“gray image of Euskadi” that has little to do with reality, they say, with the sole purpose of evicting them from power in the regional elections that will be held next spring. And in this strategy, ELA, the majority union and the central union whose creation the party promoted in 1911, occupies a prominent place, although their paths have long since separated..

It is the thesis that lies behind the “they are coming for us and we are not going to allow it”, launched by the president of the PNV, Andoni Ortuzar, at the Aberri Eguna (Match Day, celebrated on the last Sunday of September). Ortuzar, by the way, is affiliated with ELA, like many other party officials.. And it is the idea that Urkullu repeated again this Friday in the Basque Parliament. This same week, on Wednesday, in an El Diario Vasco forum he was more explicit. “Euskadi represents 5% of the State, but more than 50% of the strikes are called here. “Are we the ones who have the worst conditions? Who has the worst services?” asked the Lendakari.. And the answer was: “It is a strategy focused on creating a climate of permanent social unrest.”. Strikes and more strikes, protests and more protests with a clear political intention.”.

But for political scientist Félix Arrieta, the PNV is wrong with this type of messages. “It is a reading of the diagnosis that he makes of society, but not of the message that he should send to society. The PNV is a government party and should not be constantly pointing out what others are doing, but rather exposing its measures, the solutions it offers.”. The scenario for the PNV is complex – the result of the municipal elections in May and the general elections in July confirmed a drop in support and the strength of Bildu – and the proximity of the regional elections, which are held in June, influences the strategy. that the party has adopted and that the specialist from the University of Deusto considers erroneous.

Firstly, because although some economic indicators may underpin the PNV's discourse, the reality that ordinary citizens experience is very different due to factors such as inflation.. Also due to the wear and tear in the management of a legislature marked by the pandemic and how this has influenced Osakidetza, the jewel in the crown of public services in Euskadi and one of the elements of friction with the unions, like Education.

Precisely, Urkullu outlined a series of indicators to reinforce his thesis. In the last 10 years, he defended, the GDP of the community has gone from 64,000 million to more than 80,000, unemployment has dropped from 16 to 7.4%, there are one million people working, 125,000 more, and spending sanitary means per inhabitant has gone from 2,700 euros to 3,500. However, the X-ray of ALS is very different: “We live in a phase of generalized impoverishment”. And a large part of the citizenry also sees it that way.. The latest DeustoBarómetro, published last summer, shows that the biggest concern of Basques is the rise in prices (45.5%). The percentage is similar if the data is analyzed by vote recall. It is the main problem for 48.4% of PNV voters, 44.6% of Bildu voters, 47% of PSOE voters, 54.9% of Podemos, 51.4% of PP and 39.2% of Vox. The same study found that the state of health is the second concern, as reflected in the graph.

The struggle between the PNV and ELA is not new, in the 2016 elections the central party called strikes against the Basque Government in the middle of the electoral campaign, but now it has intensified and the union attributes it to the fact that they are the only counterpower in Euskadi. This is how the general secretary, Mikel Lakuntza, defended it this Thursday in an interview on Radio Euskadi: “In this country there is no political opposition. The only thing there is is union and social opposition. And evidently in this task of union and social opposition the main agent is ELA, which is committed with pride.”.

The head of the union center completely disassociated himself from Bildu and placed the coalition on the same level as the PNV. “They do not have nor do they want to do anything with counterpower. If something characterizes EH Bildu's policy today, it is moderation and reaching agreements. The Lendakari attacks us for non-appearance, because there is no other opposition,” he concluded.. The central office has more strikes planned for this October, both specific to Education and one for the entire public administration next Wednesday the 25th..

The DeustoBarómetro also asked about the degree of trust in the unions and in this case the main difference lies between the left-wing and right-wing parties.. In the latter, distrust is much greater. 34.8% among PNV voters, compared to the lowest percentage, that of Bildu voters, with 21.4%.

But beyond the figures and the sympathies that the unions draw on both sides of the political spectrum, Arrieta warns that the maximalist readings of ELA are not correct either.. “That it exercises counterpower is a fact. There is no doubt that it is trying to set the agenda of the PNV and especially that of Bildu, which right now is where it can have the most influence, but whether it is the only counterpower is very debatable,” says the political scientist and gives the example of the last elections, of the municipal and general elections, in which the nationalists and the nationalist left moved to expand their respective bases, seeking greater centrality. “Who reads society better? The two main Basque parties or a union? The logic of counterpower is distributed according to various parameters,” concludes the expert..

The beginning of the break with the PNV dates back to the Transition, although over the years the disagreements modulated depending on the political context.. For example, during the governments of Juan José Ibarretxe, ELA once again converged with the PNV on the nationalist issue, but not on the labor or social issues.. However, with the arrival of Urkullu to the Basque Government the bridges ended up breaking. “Before I knew what the PNV was and what ALS was. Also today. ELA is an anti-PNV union, which is seen more in the HB demonstrations than in the batzokis,” Iñaki Anasagasti criticized in 2011 in an article published in El País on the occasion of the union's centenary..

The power of ALS: the street and the resistance box

ELA proudly boasts of being a union without any type of link with institutional or economic powers, the only one without ties to represent the interests of the workers.. It has about 100,000 members and its representation quota is 40%, double, according to central sources, that of the second union by representation in the Basque Country, since CCOO and LAB alternate, linked to the radical left.. But ELA was not always the reference union and nor was it the harshest..

In the 1980s, ELA broke into factories to prevent “UGT from eating its toast,” explains Jon Las Heras, professor of Applied Economics at the University of the Basque Country (UPV) and author of the article Going on strike to renew: the strategies organization of Basque unions and the use of the resistance fund, published in the British Journal of Industrial Relations of the London School of Economics. It is in those years when the union manages to become the majority, however, it is not until the 90s, “when it already had mass and representation”, when it decided to change its strategy. Leave the offices and storm the streets. In short, move away completely from the CCOO and UGT model, that of dialogue with the Government to guarantee social peace..

The union sets new objectives and a key element comes into play, the resistance fund, to guarantee its own resources. It is the tool that allows long strikes to be covered and an almost unique case in Spain. ELA allocates 25% of its members' fees to feed the fund, an amount that in 2021, the last year for which data is available, amounted to 5 million. Its striking workers receive up to 1,243 euros per month. It is the lifeline that allows strikes like that of Tubacex, which lasted 235 days, or that of the cleaning workers at the Guggenheim Museum, which lasted 285 days. It is your ace in the hole to twist the arm of the company in charge or the administration. And its strength is what partly explains why Jesús María Pedrosa Urquiza, a PP councilor in Durango murdered by ETA in 2000, was a member of the union. So was his wife.