The Diplomat
The Independent and Civil Servants Trade Union Central (CSIF) has sent a letter to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, to denounce the salary freeze suffered by the labor staff of the Consulates and Embassies of Spain abroad for more than thirteen years and to ask for his “personal involvement at the highest political level” in order to find a solution to the conflict.
“The third week of strike in the United Kingdom begins and there have been no significant advances. Our colleagues are suffering as the days go by, but they are firmly determined in their objective,” begins the letter, in reference to the indefinite strike called last March 14 by the CSIF, CCOO and UGT unions at the three Spanish Consulates General in the UK (London, Manchester and Edinburgh) and at the Spanish Embassy in London to demand an increase in their salaries, which have been frozen since 2008.
“We understand that, in his experience as a former Consul General and Ambassador, he has been able to know the importance of this staff, real engine of the Embassies, Consulates and Councils of Spain abroad, and we believe that something should call our attention when this bilingual staff with years of professional experience, these invaluable human resources, They do not care whether they work in a supermarket or a fast food restaurant because Spain does not value or respect them, paying salaries that are close to minimum wages and that do not recognize the true cost of living in the country, in addition to the lack of a Social Action plan and deficient health care,” the letter continues.
“Mr. Minister, it is no longer enough with middle ranking officials submitting reports. We need your personal involvement at the highest political level to show that the UK is not an isolated case and must be resolved immediately,” continues CSIF. According to the unions calling the strike, the situation is particularly worrying for UK workers because, as a result of the country’s exit from the European Union, inflation has soared to its highest point in the last 30 years.
In the letter, CSIF recalls that the workers of the General Administration of the State in Berlin -about 90 people- joined the indefinite strike last March 21. “If this situation of flagrant injustice continues”, warns the union, “the strikes and assemblies will spread all over the world, since a wage freeze that already exceeds thirteen years has definitively undermined the purchasing power of all the Spanish Labor Staff abroad”.
The trade union central denounces that the Interministerial Commission of Remunerations (CECIR), the collegiate body in charge of the personnel of the State Administration, has been accustomed for “years” to “a world of low inflation”, which is why it “inexplicably maintained and maintains” the salary freeze of “the more than 5,000 labor personnel of Spain in the world”. “That illusory world of stability no longer exists and the current situation only invites us to think of a future of generalized inflation,” it continues.
In the letter, CSIF reminds that both the attention to the “extensive Spanish diaspora” and Spain’s foreign image depend on the proper functioning of the foreign service as “a whole, comprising diplomats, civil servants and workers.” “But the clock will inexorably stop if one of the pieces stops working,” he continues. “Spain’s image abroad, for which we work so hard, cannot be compromised due to idleness or lack of interest. The face of Spain is reflected in its personnel, in each window of a Consulate, in that family abroad that protects its own,” warns the union. “In view of the fact that the only possible solution is a political one, and since politics only understands votes, it is worth asking, once the requested vote is finally eliminated and the 2.7 million Spaniards abroad can once again reward or punish a government with their vote, to whom do you think they will give their support if they feel ill-served and abandoned?”, asks CSIF.
