John Culatto
Unite the Union has recommended workers to become unionised if they want to have a stronger say against Brexit border tensions.
The message comes after the Inter-Regional Trade Union Council South (IRTUC) was set up to tackle the issue with Spanish unions CCOO and UGT.
Over 10,000 information leaflets were handed out to workers this week for a possible Brexit situation soon.
Unite’s Michael Netto claimed a very hard frontier brought about by Brexit would be ‘a catastrophe’ for workers of the region.
“During Franco’s time we had a closed frontier but now we could have queues of two to six hours each way,” said Netto.
Victor Gonzalez of the NASUWT Teacher’s union, said ‘frontier flow was necessary’ not only for workers but also for tourists.
This message was echoed by the Spanish unions on the other side of the border, who are part of the
Spanish unionist Manuel Tirado of regional secretary of the Comunidades Obreras union has not hidden his dismay for the Spanish government position.
“It is two years since Brexit was announced and they still haven’t done their homework,” said Tirado.
“In that time all we have received is promises with very little budget backing.
“Fortunately, there are trade union organisations working on both sides of the frontier to defend worker right and we will fight for clearer answers.”
Congratulations
After last week’s election success, Unite the Union congratulated the GSLP/Lib alliance in their recent win.
“We look forward to working positively with them in the next four years for the benefit of the working class and wider community,” Christian Duo of Unite told the The Gibraltar Olive Press.
“We have jointly achieved a number of major achievements in the last four years like the introduction of compulsory pension in the private sector which requires further engagement, the reform of the industrial tribunals and the introduction of the dignity at work act.”
Unite described the legislation prohibiting the misuse of agency workers and the announcement by the Chief Minister to commit to delivering Unite’s 15-point plan as ‘a pivotal moment in our recent history’.
“We now look forward to the next four years and continuing to work with Government in the the implementation of the 15-point plan,” said Duo.
“We want to see the review of supported employment and that once and for all the legislation on trade union recognition sees the light of day.”
