Spanish unions clash on chemicals deal

The unions representing chemical workers in Spain’s two main union confederations, CCOO and UGT, are at loggerheads over a national pay deal for the chemical industry. This covers some 200,000 workers and provides for a 1.5% increase in 2011 and 2012.

While the CCOO union FITEQA signed the two-year deal on 18 October, the UGT union, FITAG, refused. The main disagreement is over the inflation catch-up clause. This pays out once inflation, measured from January 2011, is higher than 1.5%.

However, it only comes into effect for the months when inflation is higher, not for the whole year, something the UGT union sees as unacceptable. The latest figures for inflation show that by September prices had risen by 3.1% as compared with a year earlier, but only by 1.8% as compared with January 2011.