Overview
- UGT called roughly 200,000 workers from major fashion chains to strike on Saturday to protest a proposed national collective agreement promoted by employer group ARTE.
- The dispute follows a March preagreement signed only by ARTE with CCOO and Fetico that UGT and CIG refused to approve, and negotiations remain open while protests occur at stores and shopping centres.
- Unions warn the draft would fold local pay differences into 'ad personam' supplements that could be absorbed later and allow hiring on weaker terms, which they say creates incentives to replace higher‑paid, longer‑tenured staff.
- ARTE and its president Ana López‑Casero defend the preagreement as promoting equity and improving hiring, pay and schedules and have called for continued responsible dialogue to finish the text.
- The conflict touches about 200,000 workers and could reshape Spain’s territorial collective‑bargaining system, with immediate impacts on store operations, regional rights such as paid leave and sickness supplements, and the risk of further sector mobilizations.