CCOO and UGT Union workers join the jobless

SPAIN’S two leading trade unions, CCOO and UGT, have sacked nearly 500 workers.

With more than 5 million Spaniards out of work and 3 million jobs lost, both unions have followed the example of 70 per cent of Spanish businesses and shed staff.

Despite their opposition to last month’s new labour laws, the unions have also taken advantage of the legislation to reduce severance pay for the most recent dismissals.

UGT sacked six of its workers in the Valencian Community at the beginning of the year, and a planned 10 per cent reduction of its 300-strong workforce means another 30 will soon be out of a job.

In Madrid 120 UGT employees were made redundant in June and November, plus another 30 on open-ended contracts, also in November.

In the Castilla-La Mancha autonomous region, UGT made 54 people redundant last summer while 16 had their working hours reduced.

Another 16 were dismissed at the end of 2011 for “organisational, technical and production reasons” and an additional 31 sacked earlier this year.

There were further UGT dismissals in Navarra and the Canary Islands where 11 workers were dismissed last summer and the 68 remaining employees now face temporary layoff.

The union is now planning redundancies in Cataluña, although it is not yet known how many employees will be affected. Meanwhile, 123 of CCOO’s 138 employees in Aragon have been made temporarily redundant.

CCOO is also currently embroiled in the case of an employee Gijon (Asturias) who was sacked twice from her job after working almost 10 years for the union.

On each occasions the courts ruled in her favour and ordered the union to reinstate her.

By Linda Hall