Zara and Pull&Bear will face an eventful sales campaign. The CGT and USO unions have called a strike for January 7, the first day of sales. The Inditex brands demanding salary improvements are Zara (including Lefties and Kiddy’s Class) and Pull&Bear.
The strike seeks to equalize conditions at the Galician company across all autonomous communities. On December 22, the workers of A Coruña achieved a monthly increase that was not extended to all Inditex workers.
Zara and Pull&Bear workers will be on strike on January 7
The General Confederation of Labor (CGT) stated at the end of November that they would make a national appeal among store staff so that wage conditions would be equalized across the different lines of the Galician company. However, it must be taken into account that the majority unions in Inditex are CCOO and UGT (they have the support of more than 90% of the workforce), and they have decided not to support the strike.
Nor will the Galician Inter-Union Confederation (CIG) participate, which managed to force the agreement in the last strike. Otherwise, the workers would have organized another strike on December 23.
Salary improvements
The conditions reached on December 22 will allow the company’s workers in the province of A Coruña (who number around 1,500 to 1,600 people) to receive a monthly increase in salary bonuses. This means, as explained in FashionUnited, “a progressive increase that, starting from those 322 euros, provides for new increases over the next few years, of 20 euros from November 2023, and 40 euros from November 2024, which will end up producing an increase of 380 euros on the current salary of the employees of the Inditex store in La Coruña“. In 15 monthly installments they will achieve an increase of about 5,700 euros a year.
However, this is not the only request from the CGT. Other requests are:
- Salary increase of 250 euros per month for workers working 15 hours or less;
- Equalization of pay for Sundays as holidays;
- Granting of the same benefits and social assistance that workers in other Inditex departments already enjoy.
The CCOO union has announced that they have opened a channel of communication with the company and that they are seeking a solution for the company to unblock the provincial agreement. “We have asked the Inditex Group to negotiate application measures throughout the Group that address, in the short and medium term, the loss of purchasing power,” reported CCOO and UGT a couple of months ago.