“Those who hate Spain cannot defend the workers”—Trade Union Sec-Gen Jordi de la Fuente

Jordi de la Fuente is the recently elected secretary general of Solidaridad, a Spanish trade union founded with the backing of the conservative party VOX. He is also a VOX councillor in the Catalan town of Sant Adrià de Besòs. Solidaridad positions itself as an alternative to Spain’s mainstream unions—UGT and CCOO—which it accuses of collusion with the political Left and reliance on state subsidies. De la Fuente is outspoken in linking workers’ rights to national sovereignty, strict border control, and opposition to EU environmental policies.

What is Solidaridad for you?

For me, it is the only free and patriotic trade union that exists in Spain. Solidaridad does not depend on subsidies from the government of the day, nor on any administration controlled by political power, unlike the duopoly that heads the trade union mafia in our country: UGT and CCOO [Spain’s two largest and long-established unions, closely linked to the Socialist and Communist traditions]. 

We were born to defend the workers of Spain, without political mortgages or dependence on public money, with an austere, militant and efficient structure. Moreover, Solidaridad is also the only trade union that openly opposes the UN-backed 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and the policy of imposition that the European Commission implements with anti-social measures contrary to the national interests of Spain, such as the European Green Pact [the EU’s sweeping climate legislation aiming for carbon neutrality], the open borders without control to illegal immigration or unfair competition and the ideological climate agenda.

Solidaridad takes its name from the Polish trade union Solidarność, which contributed so much to the fall of the communist regime. What do you think of that Polish workers’ movement?

It is an inspiration. That Polish trade union was a reference for the struggle against a bloodthirsty regime and for the defence of workers’ rights against an oppressive state in the hands of foreign powers. 

Saving historical and political distances, in Spain we also suffer from a political-union oligarchy that oppresses workers with unjust laws, confiscatory taxes, and a migration policy that destroys wages, with blind obedience to the diktat coming from Brussels. Like the Polish Solidarność, our union is also confronting a system. We do not go hand in hand with power, we fight it because it is acting against the interests of the Spanish people.

What differentiates Solidaridad from the mainstream unions?

We are a trade union, and they have not been trade unions for years. CCOO and UGT have become ultra-subsidised terminals at the service of the Left. They care more about the colour of the government than about defending workers, their way of life, and their welfare and security. The proof of this is how they have remained silent in this legislature, in which the purchasing power of the Spanish people is at 2008 levels [the year of the global financial crisis that devastated Spain’s economy and employment], in the midst of the financial crisis that destroyed a very important part of the economic fabric in Spain, affecting millions of families. That is why they can no longer be considered trade unions. These organisations have built a tailor-made system to perpetuate power structures and their own selfish economic subsistence, parasitising the administration, using their trade union representation as a lever to open and justify the tap of their public funding, with everyone’s taxes.

Those who hate Spain cannot defend the workers. Why? Because we defend sovereignty as the only tool to protect workers in a ruthless global market where the law of the jungle reigns. Economic, industrial, food, energy, and, of course, political sovereignty. In the face of unfair competition, massive and uncontrolled immigration, and the relocation of companies applauded by the system, we can only defend ourselves by being a strong country with its own sovereignty, protecting its interests and its borders. However, CCOO and UGT do not believe in Spain and its borders; in fact, they do not even hesitate to align themselves with separatism and separatist local governments in regions such as Catalonia. They are always on the side of power and whoever pays the subsidy.

Therefore, they can defend us neither against cheap imported tomatoes or strawberries from Morocco, nor against products from China that undercut Spanish workers, nor against the closure of factories. What is more, they remain strictly silent when Spain’s Socialist government expropriates land on which Spanish farmers have hundreds of thousands of olive trees, to impose solar panels, while it finances the planting and production of olive trees in Morocco. Spanish workers pay with their taxes for the growth of unfair competition! It’s madness!

So, how do these unions approach the defence of Spanish workers?

The “defence” of the workers, for the subsidised trade union mafia, has come to mean focusing on social justice rhetoric over material issues like wages, jobs, or national preference.

They also continue to believe in the outdated theory of class struggle and see the employer as a bourgeois exploiter, and understand trade unionism as a permanent confrontation, which they only use for their own corporate benefit. For Solidaridad, in a country where 98% of companies are small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), trade unionism must be a tool of representation and mediation between workers and companies, of the entire productive class. We seek the best for both sides, without dogmatism, with common sense and social patriotism.

With trade unionism so discredited, is it possible to regain workers’ confidence?

Certainly, trade unionism is very damaged. Beyond the million-dollar subsidies and corruption, there is a total disconnection between the real problems of the workers and what the leadership of the UGT and CCOO says. They are more concerned with fulfilling the ideological agenda of the globalist Left than with being in the companies defending agreements or avoiding dismissals. 

Do they also have nothing to say about the Islamisation of working-class neighbourhoods, which have become ghettos? Of course not. The disaffection of the workers towards the Left and its trade union satellites is more than deserved.

Society perceives this, which is why there is a growing rejection of this clientelistic and corrupt trade union model. So, is it possible to regain workers’ confidence? Yes, and Solidaridad is growing because it offers something different: commitment, honesty, and a real defence of the Spanish worker.

You are active in VOX in Catalonia, a very complicated region due to the strong presence of separatism. Has that had anything to do with your election to lead Solidaridad?

In Catalonia, Spanish workers not only suffer job insecurity, but also marginalisation for political, linguistic, or cultural reasons, as the regional government prefers Catalan language and culture over Spanish. I know first-hand what it means to face a system dominated by separatism and clientelism.

It must be clear that Solidaridad is a trade union independent of any party, but for ideological reasons, it welcomes the electoral successes of VOX. It is the only party that takes Solidaridad’s proposals to the institutions and shares certain points of view with us on the real needs of workers, especially those that have to do with their safety and loss of freedom in their neighbourhoods.

In VOX, I have gained experience in organising and coordinating election campaigns, and this knowledge can be useful in other fields, such as trade unions. But I have been an activist in Solidaridad since the early days of its foundation, so my path to becoming secretary general has been different. Of course, having faced very powerful enemies and, I would add, separatism, gives us patriots in Catalonia a very determined and committed spirit. This is the mentality that I want to convey to our affiliates and supporters: there is no right without conquest, no conquest without struggle on all fronts. 

That is why we will go beyond classic labour rights: we are already talking about the insecurity suffered by workers, the lack of access to housing, the competition for public and private resources between natives and immigrants in the face of uncontrolled, massive and, to a large extent, illegal immigration.

Where are you going to battle, and in which employment sector does Solidaridad have the strongest presence?

We are growing in all sectors, but especially in those where precariousness is most prevalent: logistics, transport, security and cleaning. [Sectors known for low pay, outsourcing, and unstable work contracts.] Discontinuous fixed-term contracts, temporary lay-offs, job cuts… with these elements, it is inevitable that our message resonates when we point out the real problems.

We are also gaining presence in the industrial sector and among public workers who are fed up with their unions playing into the hands of the government, only concerned with obtaining representation and therefore subsidies. We will fight the battle wherever we have to, but always with a clear objective: to give everything back to the workers of Spain, one of our most cherished and repeated slogans.

The government is proposing a reduction in working hours to 37.5 hours a week. What is Solidaridad’s opinion on this?

We are totally in favour of a better life for workers, but we do not automatically accept every opportunistic measure. We reject the imposition of measures without taking into account the reality of companies, the differences between sectors, and the structure of the Spanish economy. Reducing working hours without lowering wages sounds very good, but if it is not accompanied by a tax reduction for workers and employers, and by real aid to SMEs and the self-employed, the only thing that will happen is more closures, more precariousness, more redundancies, and a greater burden for the self-employed and small entrepreneurs. Multinationals can absorb these impacts, but small local businesses cannot.

In Solidaridad, we believe that work should allow a dignified, balanced, and stable life, but this is achieved with sovereignty, with a strong industrial policy, and by protecting our companies against unfair competition, not with headline-grabbing announcements. 

If the state wants the working day to be reduced, it should first give up its own wastefulness and lower the taxes that stifle those who create jobs. The welfare state can be improved with less taxation by eliminating ideological subsidies, duplicated government structures, and superfluous spending, so that fiscal plundering disappears and our purchasing power grows. Workers want to work and earn a decent wage, not handouts, nor to delay the retirement age.

Solidaridad celebrated May 1st, International Workers’ Day, with a rally in Fuenlabrada, Madrid. Their slogan was “no job, no home, no security, and no light”.

Yes, Solidaridad faced the 1st of May with a lot of anger—anger because it’s not right that workers have once again been caught up in a crisis caused by this government, one that could have been completely avoided, such as the recent blackout.

That is why we were forced to change our slogan, which was “no job, no home, no security”, and add “no light”. There is no justification for a government that has dismantled our energy industry and forced us into ideological policies disguised as ecological goals. This blackout was entirely avoidable and happened because our energy sovereignty has been handed away.

We are asked “not to speculate”, but it is already estimated that this blackout has cost 1.6 billion in losses to the Spanish economy, especially to SMEs—as we’ve said, the backbone of Spain’s economic system. Who is going to cover these losses? Because if we’re expected to wait for compensation from Pedro Sánchez’s government, we’re in trouble. We are still waiting for compensation in places like 

The only thing left is to take to the streets and keep fighting—at work, at home, and wherever else we need to.