I have always publicly maintained that the trusting attitude of INALSA workers surprised me, how they settled for the presidential promise of a "social peace" because the specifications for privatization would include sufficient conditions so that their jobs would not be in danger. Well, know that these ceased to be substantial, now, they are negotiable.
The report of the lawyer, hired by the Government Group for INALSA matters, presented in the ordinary session of the General Assembly of the Water Consortium, held on January 11, among the clauses of the specifications susceptible to negotiation in the open negotiated procedure, refers to number 54, Personnel, "specifically, the need for authorization from the Consortium to carry out an ERE for organizational reasons and authorization in case of declared unfair dismissal".
This would imply that if before, in the original specifications, the authorization of the Consortium was necessary to carry out an ERE or unfair dismissal, now it is not. For the Mayors of the island, the President and Vice-President of the Cabildo, who have approved said report, this clause has ceased to be substantial, now, it could be negotiable.
It is true that this section of the report was not included in the final agreement taken in said session or published in the official bulletins. It was not contemplated in this procedure, I repeat. But God forbid that they do not have to give in to the demands of the businessmen who participate in this contest, aware, as they are, of the distress and urgency that the aforementioned have to reach an agreement to avoid the liquidation of INALSA due to the consequences it would have for some.
I wouldn't trust them one bit. Recent breaches as proof of distrust abound. One, related to this matter, the promise of the President, repeated a thousand times, that the price of water would not be made until 2016. Now, it is negotiable, it is not substantial. I risk, and I wish I had to rectify, to predict that we will pay more for water, sooner rather than later. He himself recognizes, according to the minutes of the session, that although the fixed fee is not negotiable (the 50 million) the "possibility of negotiating the four-year term for the modification of the Water Rate" is.
Another example that generates distrust in me is the changes in position of his government partners, PSOE. Before, paladins defending the public management of services and now promoters of the "new management models" in the hands of individuals (I put this last one because they don't say it) in INALSA and Castillo de San José. Before, in the opposition, defenders of the reinstatement of a "unfairly treated" worker and, in the government, to the...street.
I, without trying to alarm, would be a little more worried.
*Ginés de Quintana, AC counselor in the Cabildo.
