The delegate of the Government in Cantabria, Eugenia Gómez de Diego, defended this Friday the role of unionism and social dialogue as fundamental tools to guarantee labor rights and advance social justice, and stressed that Spain "advances more strongly than ever" thanks to the policies promoted by the progressive Government.
During his speech at the congress of the Federation of Industry, Construction and Agriculture (FICA) of UGT, held at the Hotel Santemar in Santander, Gómez de Diego stressed that the Executive has faced challenges such as the pandemic or the energy crisis with "courageous measures and social dialogue", which has allowed Spain to become "the engine of job creation of the European Union".
"Spain is the job creation engine of the European Union. A country with more jobs, with less unemployment, which creates companies, with a fairer labour market, which raises wages and at the same time reduces the gender gap", he stressed, stressing that the country has reached 21.5 million people, has the lowest employment rate of the last 17 years and the wage gap between men and women has been reduced by almost seven points in the last year.
"This is a country success and trade unionism has been key to achieving it," said Gómez de Diego, arguing that "from the crises we get better from the left."
Thus, Gómez de Diego recalled that Spain has faced in recent years crises of great impact, from the recession of 2008 to the pandemic and the energy crisis derived from the war in Ukraine. In this context, it has highlighted the government's response with "courageous" measures, such as labour reform, the result of social dialogue, which has allowed job creation to multiply in comparison with other European countries.
He has also defended intervention in the electricity market to lower the price of energy and has refuted what he has described as "mantras of neoliberalism", such as the idea that raising the Interprofessional Minimum Wage destroys employment. "We have raised the SMI by more than 50% and we have 21 million people working and paying social security contributions," he said.
Faced with future challenges, Gómez de Diego has appealed to a "modern and strong" unionism to face changes such as digitalization, artificial intelligence, robotics or the ecological transition. "We need you. We need a modern and strong trade unionism," he stressed, reaffirming the government's commitment to social dialogue.
Finally, it has transferred its support to the trade union organization and has ensured that the Government of Spain will continue to promote policies for the benefit of workers. "You know that you count on us to talk, collaborate and promote measures that improve people's lives," he concluded.