Barcelona cleaning and garbage collection workers call off strike after pay raise

The UGT union, which had called for Barcelona cleaning and garbage collection workers to go on strike, has agreed to call off the walkout. Workers demanded a pay raise to avoid not working from April 24 to 29. 

On Friday night, the union announced that workers would get a 9.1% increase in wages. For 2019 wages, they will raise them by 0.6%. 2020 will remain the same, while for 2021, workers will see a 6% increase. Regarding 2022, unions and the city council agreed to advance 2.5% of the wage but limited the potential future negotiations to 4%.

After the agreement, the UGT union considered "a great deal" that allowed "to call off the strike." On a similar note, the CCOO union, who had also called their affiliates to go on strike, welcomed the deal but regretted that companies push their workers to the limit of calling a strike to get better working conditions. 

The deal was reached during the fifth meeting of a committee that controls the last three years’ salaries. 

In Barcelona, there are some 4,000 cleaning staff and garbage collectors employed by four different companies the council has outsourced this work to. Their salaries have not had been increased at all since 2018 despite inflation, currently at an all-time high. If the strike had gone ahead, it would have been the first of its kind in 40 years.