A-Infos (en) Spaine, CNT: Trade unionism is not a crime: For the immediate acquittal of Las Seis de La Suiza (ca, de, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

The CNT calls a demonstration at the state level on September 24 in Madrid to 
denounce a ruling that criminalizes union tools for the defense of women workers. 
---- The sentence to Las Seis de La Suiza de Xixón/Gijón condemns the trade 
unionists to prison for the exercise of trade union action, legitimate social 
protest and freedom of expression. ---- The CNT calls on all citizens and the 
social, neighborhood and trade union fabric of all the cities and towns of the 
State to assume as their own the defense of Las Seis de La Suiza. ---- The CNT 
has convened at the state level for next September 24 (12:30 p.m., in front of 
the Ministry of Justice) the holding of a large demonstration that will demand 
the immediate acquittal of the six trade unionists sentenced to prison terms for 
the lawful exercise of union action in the context of the conflict between the 
union and the company La Suiza de Gijón/Xixón.

The march will take place under the slogan "Trade unionism is not a crime", in 
the face of a sentence that, in fact, makes it impossible to exercise trade union 
action and seriously curtails civil rights such as freedom of expression and 
demonstration. The CNT is confident that the demonstration will be massive and 
will bring together all those organizations, groups and people who feel 
solidarity with the convicted people, and committed to the repressive blow that 
their persecution and conviction entails.

A direct attack on the tools of trade union struggle and social protest
Six CNT Asturias comrades have been sentenced to three and a half years in prison 
for "serious coercion" and "obstruction of justice", as well as payment of a fine 
of 150,000 euros. The absolutely absurd sentence is a direct attack on the union 
tools that the law itself includes for the defense of female workers. An attack 
that criminalizes the traditional forms of social and trade union protest and 
that comes at a time when a "hot autumn" is announced in the face of the economic 
crisis, inflation and the worsening of the living conditions of the working class.

From CNT we consider the judicial sentences issued against our colleagues as a 
frontal attack on our way of understanding union action, understood as a direct, 
unmediated, public and firm defense of the workers against the abuses of the 
bosses. But we believe that in addition, the seriousness of the sentences, which 
if carried out, would lead our compañeras to prison, is a direct attack on 
grassroots and combative trade unionism as a whole and on any form of social 
protest that continues to bet on the presence in the street as a way of defending 
rights.

For all these reasons, we encourage and call on the entire working class and 
citizens in general to demonstrate in Madrid next Saturday, September 24 at 12:30 
p.m. in front of the headquarters of the Ministry of Justice (C/ San Bernardo, 
45) to show rejection of this judicial conviction and to show support for the 
compañeras threatened with imprisonment.

About the Switzerland case
To find the origin of the conflict we have to go back to 2017, when a worker at 
the La Suiza pastry shop in Gijón/Xixón turned to our union for advice and 
support in a situation of employer abuse and harassment, with the non-payment of 
around 80 overtime hours per month, the impossibility of taking vacations and 
excessive workloads during the worker's pregnancy, which translated into a risk 
of abortion that led to the corresponding medical leave. Along with all these 
abuses, the colleague denounced unbearable treatment by the employer, which 
included humiliating comments and opinions about her body.

Already with the support of CNT Xixón, the union began by trying to hold a 
meeting with the businessman from La Suiza to address the situation and try to 
resolve it through dialogue, something the employer refused.

Faced with this situation, the CNT decided to make the conflict public through 
the May Day rally and through social networks. As a result of this information 
campaign, the employer agreed to meet with the union, but refused to reach any 
agreement.

Thus, from CNT Xixón a series of concentrations are carried out outside the 
pastry shop and an information campaign on the open conflict between the company 
and the worker. In other words, the trade union tools available to us are used to 
defend the rights of the affected worker. It should be noted that all these 
actions are carried out firmly in defense of our colleague but without police 
intervention.
Despite the "normality" of the protest actions, police identifications of 
different CNT Xixón comrades began to take place and, finally, several arrests 
were made and the corresponding complaints were processed.

The consequent judicial process opens with the attempt to charge thirty people, 
members of the union, but also other people who had come to support the La Suiza 
worker. Eight people were ultimately charged.

The worker affected in the original conflict also files a complaint for sexual 
harassment, which is filed before the judicial justification of not having 
sufficient burden of proof.

Finally, the Criminal Court number 1 of Xixón/Gijón, in a sentence issued in June 
2021, sentenced the eight activists prosecuted to a total of 25.3 years in 
prison: three and a half years in prison for 7 of them and 8 months for another, 
for the crimes of coercion and obstruction of justice. In addition, the sentence 
establishes compensation for the La Suiza pastry shop of 150,428 euros, declaring 
the CNT union as subsidiary civil liability.

This past spring, and after an appeal filed by the legal team of the CNT, the 
Superior Court of Justice of Asturias has ratified the prison sentence for six of 
the eight trade unionists convicted in the case of 'La Suiza'.

https://www.cnt.es/noticias/hacer-sindicalismo-no-es-delito-por-la-absolucion-inmediata-de-las-seis-de-la-suiza/
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