Trade unions, Podemos and CaixaBank collaborate to cut 8,000 jobs
CaixaBank, Spain’s largest domestic retail bank, is working closely with the trade unions and the Socialist Party (PSOE)-Podemos government to axe 8,291 jobs. Yesterday, it reduced the cuts to 7,791 jobs. This is still the biggest ever staff reduction in the Spanish banking sector, however.
Last week, management informed the trade unions Stalinist Workers Commissions (CCOO) and social-democratic General Union of Labor (UGT) of plans to slash staff from 44,000 to 36,109. Over 1,500 branches will be closed.
Caixabank headquarters in Madrid, Spain, 2013 (Photo: Luis García)
This is the result of the merger last September between La Caixa and bailed-out Bankia, backed by the PSOE-Podemos government, the Bank of Spain and the European Central Bank. The merged bank holds around €650 billion in assets.
Podemos supports ending social distancing amid “fourth wave” in Spain
The Spanish Socialist Party (PSOE)-Podemos government has announced that it will end the state of alarm on May 9. The state of alarm is the juridical mechanism regional governments use to impose obligatory social distancing measures, such as lockdowns, curfews, limitations on gatherings and mobility restrictions.
Once presented as being less effective than nationwide lockdowns but more compatible with keeping workers on the job, the state of alarm is being ended as a signal that the ruling class seeks to lift any measures limiting the extraction of profits. This ending of social distancing will only accelerate the spread of the virus, provoking countless unnecessary deaths.