No rent agreement, not even salary agreement. The Spanish economy is facing the crisis without agreements between the social agents and the Government that facilitate the distribution of costs that are now going to be shared with rules closer to every man for himself. The era prone to agreements in the labor field during the pandemic seems to be expiring, as certified by the recent failure of the negotiations for the renewal of the Agreement for Employment and Collective Bargaining (AENC), which was to become an important part of the pact income.
The Bank of Spain has spent months preaching the need for this income pact, detailing a distribution of costs that includes not only workers and businessmen, but also pensioners and civil servants. The President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, also launched on March 2 the idea of a "great income pact" to avoid falling into an inflationary spiral, although the truth is that, after the great announcement, the Executive has not provided any initiative concrete to develop it. The CEOE has not been receptive either, and the unions demanded more intervention from the Government.
Finally, the preaching of the Bank of Spain has fallen into the desert, and the crisis will be faced without a pact. "It was a very good idea, the least bad solution for the serious problem we have," says Ángel de la Fuente, from Fedea, who proposes two ways to deal with the impact of the crisis. "There are two ways to act, one is to see how we distribute it, and the second, save yourself who can."
Ángel de la Fuente acknowledges that it is very complicated to agree with all those involved and for each one to accept part of the cost, which is why the current situation is reached, in which evil is for everyone and the coup will end it carrying certain sectors, probably the most exposed to energy prices.
It is a disagreement that particularly annoys the unions that criticize the Government for not having been more active in this field. "There is no serious proposal on the table," said the secretary general of the CCOO, Unai Sordo, referring to an income pact that "reminds me of Silvio Rodríguez's blue unicorn, nobody knows where he is."
Union sources indicate that "there is nothing" about the income agreement, and that if the Government is not willing to move in fiscal policy, there is no option to advance in this area. Specifically, CC.OO. already formulated the proposal to modify the corporate tax so that it is 15% of the real accounting profit of the companies, which would allow the adoption of temporary measures to favor the most vulnerable sectors and punished by inflation.
The Bank of Spain has demanded the income pact to avoid triggering a spiral of price and cost increases "that would only aggravate the harmful effects of the current disturbance", as it has reaffirmed in the annual report presented last Wednesday. However, it included several elements in this rent agreement that were very difficult to agree on. From the outset, combine moderation in wages with moderation in business margins. Here, his approach against revaluing wages with inflation and against safeguard clauses collides with a basic demand of the unions. On the other hand, his request to accompany it with "explicit commitments to moderate business margins" does not convince the UGT and CC.OO., who do not see how these commitments would be made effective.
You can add his demand not to increase pensions in January according to inflation, which the Government rejects outright. Then follows the clash between the bank and the Minister of Inclusion and Social Security, on whether the pension system is sustainable. The Bank of Spain calls it into question with arguments that the Minister of Social Security, José Luis Escrivá, has described as "unsophisticated".
Without a deal, things get complicated. Fedea predicts that a chronification of inflation is more likely, with a loss of real income that will be distributed unequally, depending on the power of the market and the ability of companies and workers to exert pressure.
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