SUCCESS OF THE BARCELONA BICING STRIKE
In the first of 15 days called during the Bicing strike, today 12 July, the follow-up of the mobility strike, maintenance and workshop has been from 100%. Both the morning picket and the rally in Plaça Sant Jaume in Barcelona were very crowded. In the afternoon there is a call during the strike hours, from 16 a 18 hours, another concentration of 17 a 19 in Sant Jaume.
In it 2017 the Bicing workers have started a fight to reverse a situation that has been dragging on since its beginnings in the 2006. In July of 2006 Barcelona City Council issues a tender for the management of the Bicing activity in the city for 55.000.000 euros, was awarded to Clear Channel, American multinational, in December of 2006 only for 22.495 640, that is to say, less than half of what, according to the studies carried out by the City Council, it cost to implement Bicing. In turn Clear Channel outsourced it to another company. The consequences of this economic reduction in initial investment, they fell on the workers and their economic and health conditions, extending to the present day.
In it 2006 the excuse for having a workforce in precarious conditions was that the activity was new and had to be consolidated. To all the workers who tried to denounce the situation and organize themselves, they were immediately dismissed, labor insecurity in the company has been festering for years. Bicing is now consolidated and this excuse does not hold.
In it 2017 the situation is similar. It is providing the Clear Channel service provisionally and a tender is being held from the town hall for 10 years, 2018 al 2028, with a total amount of 227.568.148 euros that are awarded in September of this year. The annual cost is 22.756.824 euros, and the part dedicated to salary costs is of 4 365.773 of euros that is to say the 19 % of the tender, in which the managers and coordinators of the company are included and which they take alone 1.100.000 d'euros. No company devotes only such a small amount to salary costs. We believe that the costs allocated to workers' wages are totally insufficient and the consequences are very low wages and a lack of investment in occupational risk prevention materials.
From the CGT we hold the Clear Channel company responsible for this situation for having presented such low figures that served as the basis for the tender, and to Barcelona City Council for not verifying that these numbers are being used to pay a pittance and to carry out the tender without the relevant checks, both economic and in terms of occupational risk prevention.
The CGT considers that some of the options to alleviate this business and city council "error" can be to make a change in the tender, in the wage bill, guaranteeing that workers are paid decent wages and that resources are allocated to prevention or that the tender is withdrawn and another is published, solving the deficiencies that have been detected. These proposals are feasible and all that is needed is the will on the part of the company and the city council.
We remain open to dialogue aimed at finding a definitive solution that eradicates precariousness in Bicing, meanwhile we will continue to mobilize so that we are heard. This situation, known both by the company and the City Council, cannot continue.
The rest of the strike days of 4 hours are called on the days 12,14,15,16,17,19, 21, 22, 23, 24, 26, 28, 29, 30 i 31 July. Friday 14 of July there will also be rallies in Plaça Sant Jaume de 9 a 11 hours and of 17 a 19 hours.
CGT Bicing Barcelona
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