Direct care workers for Barcelona City Council, including staff from social services, citizen attention offices, nurseries, libraries, and the feminism area, are on strike today in Barcelona. They are protesting the collapse of public services and the refusal of the government led by Jaume Collboni to negotiate.
The striking workers are also holding a unified demonstration through the city centre, which began at Plaça de la Universitat at 11.00 and is scheduled to conclude at Plaça de Sant Jaume around 12.30. For the protest, workers organised into two columns.
Personnel from citizen attention offices, libraries, and nurseries departed at 9.30 from Carrer de la Creu Coberta, 104, in front of the Sants-Montjuïc district headquarters. Simultaneously, staff from social services and the feminism area started their march at the same time from Carrer de València, 344, at the Municipal Institute of Social Services.
The demands presented by the workers are not new, according to the source. They have been mobilising in neighbourhoods for months to denounce a chronic lack of resources, a loss of purchasing power, the unequal and uncompensated application of the 35-hour working week, and cuts to conciliation rights and medical leave. Today marks their first unified mobilisation.
On 18 April, the Intersindical union registered a formal request with the city council, demanding the formation of a negotiation table. The union also requested that representatives of the collectives be received by the municipal government today at the end of the demonstration in Plaça de Sant Jaume.
Intersindical expressed regret that the government has not addressed any of their requests. However, the union highlighted that other groups within the plenary, such as the Comuns, ERC, and Junts, have agreed to receive them at the doors of the city council.
The Intersindical union warns that today's mobilisation is not an isolated event but a further step in a labour dispute that, according to the union, will intensify in the coming weeks.
Library Staff Mobilisations
In a parallel development, workers of the Barcelona Library Consortium have called a strike for Sant Jordi and every Saturday indefinitely. They are protesting 'growing discontent' over the management of their adherence to the new Barcelona City Council agreement. The works council, comprising representatives from Intersindical and CGT, accuses the consortium and the administration of a lack of negotiation and deteriorating working conditions.
Representatives from the CGT of the Barcelona Provincial Council library network will also join these protests, denouncing a 'limit situation' that has persisted for years. This particular protest began with the occupation of the Sarrià – J. V. Foix Library.
With Intersindical predicting an intensification of the labour dispute in the coming weeks and library staff continuing their indefinite Saturday strikes, the situation points to ongoing challenges for public services and city council negotiations in Barcelona.
