Dear colleagues, friends,

How can there still be a European Union country, where trade union rights are not respected ?

How can leading European retailers be allowed to violate the trade union rights of their workers, in the heart of the European Union ?

How can leading European retailers - in a member state of the European Union - ignore the OECD guidelines for multinational companies, by interfering with trade union activities ?

How can Spanish management in commerce multinationals just ignore the workers rights’ agreements signed by these companies themselves ?

In Spain, leading commerce multinationals continue to victimise trade union activists.

In Spain, managers of leading retailers manipulate workplace elections in favour of yellow candidates.

In Spain, the commerce sector is still outside the protection of fundamental International Labour Conventions.

Why do the top decision makers at company headquarters, be it in Paris, in Düsseldorf or in other European cities, refuse to intervene ?

Is this the kind of corporate social responsibility, which employers like to talk about when they say no to laws and regulations ?

We say that their behaviour in Spain shows that a carrot is not enough, also the stick is needed to keep them on the right road.

When multinational commerce companies discriminate against UGT and Commissiones Obreras, they know what they are doing. This is a way for them to pay low wages, to hire and fire workers at their will, to demand an extreme flexibility and to avoid real collective agreements.

Carrefour knows and Metro knows and El Corte Inglés knows that this would not be possible if UGT and Commissiones Obreras are strong in their companies.

This they knew when the workers of Spain threw out the Fascist dictatorship and brough democracy to this country. This is why they created their own yellow workers organisations. This is why they continue to fight the real trade unions.

Today we say to all the Gonzalo Valdez’es of Spanish commerce :

This is the new millennium. Your game does not work anymore. Either you change or you loose.

The eyes of the European and international trade union movement are now on the leading Spanish commerce companies. We will follow the run-up to the workplace elections later this year. We will not tolerate management interference in trade union work.

Together with your unions, we will react swiftly an strongly if workers’ and trade union rights are violated. The workplace elections will be a test of fundamental workers’ rights in Spain.

The Keys are now in your hands, as workers’ and union representatives in UGT and Commissiones Obreras.

You have to make sure that there is a resounding trade union victory.

You have to show that cooperation between UGT and Commissiones Obreras is the way to win the elections and to defend workers rights in Spanish commerce.

Violations of workers’ rights and trade union rights in Spain are violations of the rights of all the 15 million workers worldwide that are united in Union Network International.

We demand that the Spanish government and the Spanish legal system ensure that commercial workers are guaranteed their rights.

We demand that the European Union ensures that the Spanish commercial workers are guaranteed the rights which all European workers should enjoy.

We will now prepare a plan with your unions on how we react if violations take place. We can demand the OECD to intervene, we can demand the International Labour Organisation to intervene, we can demand the European Commission to intervene.

Probably it is too much to expect that Mr Aznar would intervene.

We will continue to work with you and we will increase the pressure. But the key is now in your hands. This manifestation opens a campaign which will lead to a strong trade union representation through UGT and Commissiones Obreras in the leading commerce companies in Spain.

Commercial workers need secure jobs, decent incomes, sufficient working hours and above all, they expect to be treated with fairness and respect by bosses and employers.

This will only happen when you build strong trade unions at all commerce workplaces. This way you follow the great traditions of struggle for social and economic progress and justice, which have always guided the Spanish unions, both UGT and Commissiones Obreras.