Spanish Labour Appeal for Support

EMERGENCY CALL

 

Drop the Charges Against the Airbus 8 and the 300 Other

Trade Unionists Prosecuted for Taking Strike Action!

 

Dear Friends and Comrades ,

This is to urge you to please sign on to the Appeal below to the Spanish authorities , calling for the charges to be dropped against trade unionists in Spain facing stiff prison sentences for exercising their right to strike. The appeal also calls on the Spanish government to repeal Article 315.3 of its Penal Code and to respect the right to strike and all the Conventions of the International Labor Organizations that Spain has ratified.

 

On Tuesday, February 18, an International Day of Action in support of the embattled Spanish trade unionists is being organized by the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), to which the TUC is affiliated. The demands listed below are the ones being raised by the ITUC.

The endorsements will be sent to the Spanish authorities prior to Feb 18 , and so that the appeal, with all its endorsers, can be distributed to the Spanish press and read out to the trade unionists across Spain who will be mobilized to demand the right to strike.

Please fill out the coupon below and return it . Also please feel free to circulate this Appeal widely to friends, co-workers and fellow unionists.

 

Thanks, in advance, for your support. We look forward to hearing back from you,

 

In solidarity

JP Barrois

Drop the Charges Against the Airbus 8 and the 300 Other

Trade Unionists Prosecuted for Taking Strike Action!

We -- the undersigned trade unionists and supporters of trade union rights in the United Kingdom -- call upon you to relay to your government in Madrid our most urgent appeal that all charges leveled by the Spanish authorities against 8 Airbus trade unionists (7 members of the Workers’ Commissions / CCOO and 1 UGT member) be dropped immediately.

 

In addition we call for (1) all charges to be dropped against 300 other trade unionists charged with organizing informational picketlines during the recent general strikes and/or workplace and sectoral strikes, and (2) the repeal of Spain’s Article 315.3 of the Penal Code, which provides for prison sentences for trade unionists who take part in informational picketlines during a strike.

We have been informed by the Platform of Trade Unionists for Democracy and Trade Union Independence in Spain that the Airbus 8 are currently on trial for events that took place in front of the gate of the Getafe factory during the 2010 general strike against the reform of the employment laws – events resulting from the brutal police assault on the striking workers. The public prosecutor’s office is asking for a prison sentence of 8 years and 3 months for each of the 8 trade unionists, a total of 66 years.

During the first preliminary hearing that took place last December, the accused Airbus 8 turned down the public prosecutor’s offer to reduce the penalty from 8 years and 3 months to 2 years, since this would have involved agreeing that they had committed the crimes with which they were charged -- and of which they are completely innocent. As a result, the charges stand as they were.

Already prison sentences have been handed down in trials in Pontevedra, Grenada and Asturias -- the latter involving five UGT members at Arcelor’s Gijón plant who have been jailed -- two of them for 5 years and three of them for 3.5 years.

We have likewise been informed that on February 18, the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), to which our trade union federation in the United States – the AFL-CIO – is affiliated, will be organizing an International Day of Action in support of the embattled Spanish trade unionists and in support of their right to strike.

The right to strike is an indispensable component of the right to collective bargaining, a cornerstone of trade union rights and of democratic rights as such.

As supporters of trade union and democratic rights, we are outraged by the violations of basic labor rights taking place under Article 315.3 of the Penal Code.

We call upon the government of Mariano Rajoy to drop all the charges against the trade unionists, to repeal this nefarious Article 315.3 of the Penal Code, and to respect the right to strike and all the Conventions of the International Labor Organisation ( ILO ) that it has ratified.

We would greatly appreciate your acknowledging receipt of this most urgent appeal.

I endorse this appeal

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