The CCOO union is protesting this Tuesday in Valencia to demand from the Valencian government and employers a different model aimed at reversing the public management of health and education services, dignifying social services, ensuring non-precarious public employment and fair taxation, and promoting affordable housing.
Before the march began, Secretary General Unai Sordo stated that the political situation leaves little room for major legislative reforms. He also emphasized that business profits "must reach workers' pockets to improve wages." Therefore, they are demanding "a significant wage increase and a reduction in prices for basic consumption and housing," he added.
The General Secretary of CCOO PV, Ana García Alcolea, denounced that in the Valencian Community, "more than 300,000 unpaid overtime hours per week" are registered, which would generate 7,200 jobs, and stated that there are nearly half a million empty homes. For this reason, she called for the application of the state housing law and a freeze on rents.
Under the slogan "Wage, Roof, and Time," the demands will reach the Palau de la Generalitat and then the headquarters of the Valencian employers' association CEV, where the demonstration is scheduled to make two stops. This is part of a day of action within a cycle of events planned by the union throughout Spain to "denounce the serious consequences of a system that accumulates profits for elites while precariousness the lives of the majority."
Prior to the march, there was an assembly of delegates at the Teatre Olympia. For Tuesday afternoon, a meeting of the union's general secretaries with representatives of left-wing parties (PSPV, Compromís, EUPV, Podem, Sumar, and ERPV) has been called, along with a meeting with social entities linked to youth, equality, migration, and housing.
When asked for an assessment of what is becoming known about the investigation into former government president José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, Sordo stated that he is in favor of "waiting to see if there is categorical proof and, in the meantime, the presumption of innocence." In statements to the media, he affirmed that the investigation into the former president, in itself, "already represents an institutional crisis that recommends prudence and rigor when making analyses." "And to the extent that there is an investigation in which it is supposed that there will be accusations of a criminal nature, then obviously it will be necessary to move from indications to proof. And until those proofs demonstrate that there has been some type of influence peddling, it is advisable to keep clear the flag of a state of law, which is the principle of the presumption of innocence," he stressed.
