[EN] The forest firefighters of Aragon gather in front of the Pignatelli in the middle of a strike: «Material and human resources are needed»

The forest firefighters of Aragón have taken the doors of the Pignatelli this Thursday as part of the mobilizations organized to denounce their working conditions, and which complement the indefinite strike that began this Tuesday. To the cry of «forest firefighters, fundamental», or «more firefighters, fewer councillors», they have claimed, mainly, a greater number of troops, excessive working hours and insufficient provisioning.

For the Strike Committee, made up of the unions CGT, Osta, UGT and CCOO), calling these strikes «is not a decision taken lightly», but «is a consequence of the lack of answers and negotiation by the Administration». Thus, they have been open to negotiating «immediately», as long as these negotiations are not based on «announcements», but are based on «sitting down, listening, making proposals and making commitments«.

During the rally they wanted to respond to the statements made this Thursday by the Minister of the Interior, Roberto Bermúdez de Castro, in which he stated that the Government of Aragon is going to negotiate with the forest firefighters and that their working conditions will be improved before the end of the year. «We want to know if, by the end of the year, it refers to 2026 or 2030,» asked the president of the Intercenter Committee of Sarga, Carlos Martínez, stressing that their complaints are issues that «have been in the air for several years«.

In order to start these negotiations, the president of the Committee has stated that it will be necessary for them to be carried out through «someone with real decision-making and negotiation capacity«, because to this day there is no contact, nor has there been any responsible person who has sat down with us».

OBVIOUS SHORTCOMINGS DURING THE FIRE CAMPAIGN

The strike comes in the middle of a fire campaign, with the fire of Las peñas de Riglos, stabilized this Thursday, still unextinguished. The teams deployed throughout the territory have been able to see first-hand «the shortcomings of the fire prevention and distinction operation due to the lack of investment in recent years», Martínez has stressed, who has denounced that «material and human resources are needed».

Shortcomings that have weighed on the extinguishing teams. Rubén García Arévalo, forest firefighter of the Brea helicarrier, has denounced that the poor working conditions in which they work have resulted in recent days in «accumulated fatigue and fatigue from the infinite shifts we are doing, due to lack of personnel, giving everything and pulling vocation». García recalled the colleagues who are still deployed in Riglos, in whom fatigue «is already beginning to take its toll» which «increases the risk of having accidents at work by more than 150%«, he lamented.

Among his most urgent demands, García has asked for «tools and replacements in accordance with the 21st century, and not the 19th century as we still have». These tools include services as basic as «work centers with urinals, with hot water, with all the needs we have.»

They have also called for «greater investment», a claim that, they have insisted, is not new. «Already in 2022, with the Ateca or Añón fires, there was talk of that. We need the autonomous community’s own investment, we cannot always be with budgets based on the money that comes from Europe. We need a clear investment from the government of Aragon that is committed to this».