The protest of forest firefighters of the Community of Madrid to demand improvements in work after five months of strike ended with accusations from the police, two people arrested and three denounced for aggression against authority, as sources from the Government Delegation confirmed to this newspaper. The demonstration in front of the headquarters of the public company Tragsa, on Maldonado Street, also left 14 injured, according to firefighters. They documented what happened with images posted on social media.
We can even see how a police officer sprays several demonstrators in uniform. “The treatment received is a shame,” criticizes the account of the forest firefighters of the Community of Madrid in a message published in X in which they question the actions of the national police. They claim that “the detained comrades did absolutely nothing”. And they remember: “We are fighting for our rights. »
In a subsequent video recorded from a national police station where those arrested were transferred, several firefighters’ spokespersons described the situation as “unacceptable” and said they felt “mistreated.” They also demand the resignation of the government delegate in the region, Francisco Martínez: “You cannot treat a public group like this. More than 10 people are in the emergency room of the Princesa Hospital.”
The regional fire brigade completed 150 days of strike, with the exception of break which began on August 15 due to the wave of fires that hit the peninsula. The forest firefighters demand that the government of Isabel Díaz Ayuso take the reins of the negotiations, after the failure of proposals like the one considered by the Minister of the Environment, Carlos Novillo, and the president of Tragsa (the public company that provides the service on request), Jesús Casas, so that the forest firefighters of Madrid take advantage of the state agreement that regulates the Reinforcement Brigades against Forest Fires (BRIF). “We are very clear on this,” said worker representatives regarding the rejection of this measure.
Although the contracting company of the BRIF and the Madrid foresters is Tragsa, the organizers of the strike consider that this proposal makes no sense because the regional brigades belong to a completely different fire prevention and extinguishing system from that of the BRIF. For example, the BRIFs are organized into three teams, while the regional foresters only have two. According to the works council, the approximately 500 regional employees could not effectively manage a three-team organization, because they are not enough. In addition, they believe that living conditions in the Community of Madrid, more expensive than in rural areas, require an agreement adapted to the particular situation of the autonomous body.
The representative of the UGT, Rafael Fernández, described the subsequent meetings with the Tragsa authorities and the regional executive as “regrettable” due to the lack of initiative of the two interlocutors (with “derisory” salary increases) and assured that they would study the next actions of the strikers. This Thursday was one of them and it further increases both the tension and the indignation of the staff.
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