It was a serious announcement that had not gone beyond threat until yesterday, when a date was set to turn that warning into reality. A new fuse, lit in this case by judges and prosecutors, in the powder keg of protests in a Ministry of Justice with the civil servants of the basic scale on strike for a couple of weeks and with the hangover, still to be cured, of the collapse caused for the historic three-month strike of court clerks.
All associations of prosecutors and judges (except the progressive ones) announced yesterday an indefinite strike starting May 16. A strike, if the Ministry of Justice does not remedy it beforehand, which will coincide with the municipal and regional election campaign. And also, if there is no agreement before, with the indefinite strike of Justice officials.
If that threat from prosecutors and judges is carried out, this would be the third strike to shake the Ministry of Justice in just four months. An unprecedented fact and that a new invoice can be collected among citizens already very punished by the endemic delays in those offices.
The protest box in that ministry directed by Pilar Llop was opened by the lawyers of the Justice administration (former judicial secretaries) in December of last year with a strike that lasted three months. It all ended when Justice accepted a good part of the claims of those lawyers, including the promise of a payroll increase of 450 euros per month.
That agreement, sealed to restore normality in those judicial offices, has, however, had an effect contrary to that sought by the Government. Judges, prosecutors and officials have already threatened, upon learning of this agreement signed with the lawyers of the Justice administration, that they were also going to demand a salary increase. And they warned. If Justice ignored them, they would go on strike. No sooner said than done.
The threat of this new indefinite strike in the judicial world is signed by the Professional Association of the Magistracy, the Francisco de Vitoria Judicial Association, the Independent Judicial Forum, the Association of Prosecutors and the Professional and Independent Association of Prosecutors. In a joint statement they affirm that they are taking this step due to "the lack of concrete proposals and a true purpose of negotiating" from the ministries of Justice and the Treasury to improve salaries and reduce the workload.
A diagnosis in which the progressive associations, Judges and Judges for Democracy and the Progressive Union of Prosecutors agree, although they do not add, for the moment, to the strike threat. They want to wait to find out the approach of the Treasury at the meeting of the remuneration table scheduled for May 3.
The Minister of Justice, Pilar Llop, assured yesterday that her willingness to negotiate "is unquestionable", although she did not hide her discomfort at this announcement by prosecutors and judges, understanding that "this is not the time to adopt certain pressure measures". Llop is in favor of waiting to see what is decided at that meeting to discuss salaries on May 3, while the associations calling for this indefinite strike point out that, after the lack of concrete proposals in the preparatory meetings held on March 31 and on April 4, "the guarantee that everything can be solved in that meeting is almost nil." Experience has already taught them, says the statement from these associations, that "these meetings can be called off at any time."
And while yesterday that new fuse was lit in the powder keg of the Justice protests, the unions of the basic level officials sat down again – after the failure of the first meeting, on Thursday – with those responsible for that ministry. There was a meeting in the morning, which again ended without agreement, and the talks resumed in the middle of the afternoon.
That second sit-in to negotiate was also a failure. In the middle of the afternoon, the unions of the Justice personnel issued a statement in which they informed of the "no radical" of the Ministry of Justice to a salary increase, as it was approved with the judicial secretaries.
Given the "lack of progress in the negotiation," these officials announce a tightening of the mobilizations, "replacing partial strikes of three hours as of May with full days of strikes." A call is already made for "a complete stoppage in the administration of Justice throughout Spain on May 4."
The officials warn that the ministries of Justice and Finance "will cause with their attitude a new delay in the administration of Justice that will take years to resolve, regardless of public service or citizenship."
