Labor Minister Yolanda Díaz will demonstrate with the unions on May Day

"She has always respected the demands of the unions, and will continue to do so, but it is also about celebrating May Day," they explain from Minister Yolanda Díaz's team. Daughter of the CCOO leader in Galicia Suso Díaz, has had a close relationship with unions in his personal life and in his political career and he has always taken to the streets to vindicate and celebrate this day, these sources add. "It is a demonstration and a celebration that he has always attended and wants to maintain," they maintain.

Labor Day 2021 is the first in which there is a demonstration and Yolanda Díaz is a minister, since last year the pandemic forced the suspension of the May Day marches, the first time in a democracy that this day was not celebrated in the street.

Minister Yolanda Díaz will march with the majority unions, but "not at the head," they indicate from her team. It is an "unusual" image, they acknowledge, in which the Minister of Labor marches alongside the union representatives, but it is not the first time this has happened.

He marched during the Second Republic for example Largo Cabellero in 1931, Minister of Labor and union member of the UGT, together with the Mayor of Madrid, Pedro Rico, of Acción Republicana, the philosopher and independent deputy, Miguel de Unamuno and the Minister of Finance, Indalecio Prieto, of the PSOE, among others. "Anastasio de Gracia also did it in the Republic," the UGT responds to this media regarding this other minister and union member.

In this second stage of democracy, "Magdalena Valerio and Valeriano Gómez did before," they point out in the UGT, although they indicate that their participation used to be discreet: they greeted the union leaders, photo and "later they mixed with the protesters.

Pre-election May Day and "against the extreme right"

This May Day is celebrated just a few days before the regional elections in the Community of Madrid, on May 4, from which a right-wing government led by Isabel Díaz Ayuso and with the participation of Vox could emerge, according to some polls. In a climate of great tension, with death threats to several candidates and an extreme right that trivializes them, CCOO and UGT have entered the Madrid campaign to ask the left forces for a vote. "We must stop the extreme right," they defend.

Yolanda Díaz will go to the demonstration with other ministers of the United We Can coalition government, Irene Montero (Equality) and Ione Belarra (Social Rights). The leader of Unidos Podemos and candidate of the formation in the 4M elections, Pablo Iglesias, will also attend. which the Minister of Labor is supporting in various electoral events these days.

At another point in Madrid, this May Day, Vox will also demonstrate in the hands of its incipient union, Solidaridad, created after the summer. The far-right party is claiming dates hitherto scorned by the right such as May Day or 15M to seek the workers' vote.

But May Day will also have, as is typical of the day, purely labor demands. At this point, several of the claims - urgent repeal of the labor and pension reform of the PP, reduction of precariousness, increase in the SMI - are directed directly to Minister Yolanda Díaz and the coalition government as a whole.

Díaz has announced that several elements of the 2012 labor reform will be dismantled this year, a negotiation that is already open with employers and workers' representatives at the social dialogue table. Other matters will also be addressed, such as subcontracting or temporality. On the rise in the SMI, the position of the Minister of Labor is known, against this decision of the Government, which is defended above all by the economic vice president, Nadia Calviño.