Workers demand higher wages during lively May Day rally in Malaga

Hundreds of workers marched through Malaga city on Monday, 1 May, to demand higher wages and lower prices.

The traditional Labour Day demonstration called by the two main trade unions was supported by left-wing parties - with banners of the PSOE, Podemos, Izquierda Unida and the Communist Party - and other movements, such as the Platform for the Defence of Public Pensions and trade unions.

The provincial secretaries of the CC OO and UGT, Fernando Cubillo and Soledad Ruiz addressed the rally and started their speeches with a tribute to the Moroccan worker who died on Monday morning in a bus accident in Almonte in Huelva. Cubillo went on to call for a pact with employers and public administrations to talk about the distribution of benefits, taxation and wages.

Cubillo also called on employers to get involved in the signing of a fifth national collective bargaining agreement, an "income pact" that "facilitates agreements in companies from below".

"More than 535 companies are in labour disputes in Malaga over their collective agreements", he said and reminded the employers' association that they will exert "all the pressure necessary" to achieve substantial increases in wages to compensate for the loss of purchasing power of the working class.

"Concentration, mobilisation and strike if necessary. Without pressure, there are no agreements," Ruiz said.

Cubillo went further, arguing that if the employers did not agree to an agreement, the government "can and should legislate so that business profits reach the population as a whole".

PSOE, IU and Podemos, played up the measures put in by the coalition government, which were raising the minimum wage, raising pensions in line with the CPI and labour reform.

"It is a day to make demands and also to recognise that the progressive left government is responding to the needs of the workers", socialist candidate for mayor of Malaga Dani Pérez said.

According to the National Police force there were 1,500 people at the protest, but the organisers put this figure at 10,000. There were no major incidents reported.