Barcelona city council workers will hold protests on 9 and 10 June, coinciding with Pope Leo XIV’s visit to the city. The action was agreed at an open assembly on Thursday, as the municipal dispute enters its fourth month.
About 300 staff took part in the assembly, according to union sources cited by ACN. The CGT and Intersindical unions are keeping the strike call in place, and say they want to increase pressure on Mayor Jaume Collboni’s government.
The dispute affects social services, citizen attention offices, feminism departments, nurseries and libraries. Unions say the protest is aimed at direct care services in particular, which they say have been hit hardest by the current agreement.
An extraordinary plenary session of Barcelona city council, promoted by Junts, Barcelona en Comú and ERC, is due to take place on Friday to discuss the labour dispute. The unions have criticised the council for setting aside only 30 minutes for four months of strike action.
The conflict began in January, when a new working conditions agreement for 2025 to 2028 was approved for city council staff. It was signed by CCOO, UGT and CSIF, which together represent 12 of the 15 union delegates. CGT rejected the deal, while Intersindical does not take part in the negotiation table.
The new agreement covers nearly 17,000 municipal workers, but the protests are focused mainly on direct care services, which employ about 3,000 people. The unions are calling for a specific negotiation table for those services, a 35-hour working week, more staff, an end to outsourcing and higher pay. More Catalonia news