Pepe Álvarez (UGT) charges against “the blackmail” of Repsol and Cepsa for the tax on energy companies and warns the Government that the minimum wage should be 1,300 euros per month

The now re-elected Secretary General of UGT, Pepe Alvarez has attacked the threats of Repsol and Cepsa to move important investments out of Spain if the extraordinary tax on energy companies created in 2022 is maintained.

“How can it not be maintained if benefits, benefits and more benefits have fallen from the sky?” he expressed after being proclaimed leader of the union for the third time in the 44th Confederal Congress of the union, which has taken place in Barcelona since last Monday.

Although he has not mentioned either company, Álvarez has made it clear who he was referring to when he defined the warnings to cancel the investment in Tarragonain the case of Repsol, and in the Campo de Gibraltar (Cadiz), from Cepsa (now called Moeve).

“What the hell is this that we are not going to be able to invest in Tarragona and we are going to go to Portugal? It is the blackmail of a multinational that four days ago was a Spanish company and that each of the Spaniards contributed to making it what it is today,” he reproached the oil company chaired by Antonio Brufau during his closing speech.

“If we have to talk about what are the problems and needs that they have to be able to invest in Tarragona or another multinational to do so in Campo de Gibraltar, let’s sit down, but we cannot question 100% of a tax that is absolutely necessary to distribute the wealth that is generated in our country,” said the general secretary of UGT.

Repsol announced a few weeks ago that the extraordinary tax on energy companies put at risk, among others, its decarbonization project in it Tarragona petrochemical hub. Specifically, the El Morell Ecoplant and the oldest electrolyzer from Spain, associated with this plant. An investment valued at 1.1 billion euros.

For its part, the project of Andalusian valley of green hydrogen of Cepsa includes the construction of two green hydrogen production plants in Palos de la Frontera (Huelva) y Saint Roch (Cadiz). According to the group controlled by Mubadala Capital (the state venture capital manager of Abu Dhabi) and the US fund Carlyle Groupthe plan will involve an investment of 3,000 million euros and the creation of 10,000 jobs, including direct, indirect and induced.

Takeover bid from BBVA to Sabadell

Álvarez has also talked about the tax on banking profits and the OPA of BBVA on Sabadell Bank. “The banking entities multiply and multiply their profits and forget that, without charging them interest, they still owe us Spaniards more than 60,000 million euros that we have invested to rescue them,” he expressed about the public aid to the sector, delivered at the beginning of the last decade, after the financial crisis.

The union leader has also said that the operation proposed by BBVA “is not going to bring any progress to the country.” “Neither for the workers of either bank nor for small businesses or consumers,” he developed.

Minimum Interprofessional Wage

On the other hand, Álvarez has once again said that the rise in Minimum Interprofessional Wage (SMI) by 2025 it should be between 5% and 6% compared to the current 1.134 euros monthly gross in 14 payments. But it has gone further.

“We want the European Social Charter is applied forcefully and that, at least, the minimum wage is 60% of the average salary in our country”, indicated the general secretary of UGT, who added: “We are left alone defending what the indicators are to see which It is the average salary and we are not going to accept strange formulas.” A warning that was already formulated last Monday in the presence of the second vice president of the Government and Minister of Labor and Social Economy, Yolanda Diaz.

“Eurostatthe Tax Agency and the Social security They mark the average remuneration and there is not that much difference between them; In the year 2022, 60% of that figure was 1,293 euros,” he claimed as a horizon.