The Left talks about everything but wages: SMI and ignored precariousness

The Left ignores precariousness and only defends the SMI

Why does the left mobilize on everything but wages? This question hangs over the economic debate in Spain. While job insecurity erodes purchasing power, political discourse focuses on Ceuta and immigration. It is argued that unions only defend the minimum wage and forget workers with average salaries. The result: a working class abandoned by both sides.

The SMI as the only banner

The criticism is constant: calls to raise the Interprofessional Minimum Wage (SMI) dominate the union agenda, while other workers lose purchasing power. Some argue that employers only worry about making dismissal cheaper, and the left, about the SMI. Thus, middle-income workers are left in limbo. The calculation becomes complicated when adding the cost of housing: rent or purchase, the relationship between salaries, cost of living, and property prices is conspicuously absent.

Ceuta and immigration displace the problem

Meanwhile, political attention is focused on crises like Ceuta, with episodes that have led a neighbor to cry out for security. But the distance between that focus and labor issues is notable. That left, it is said, actually works for the right, and that right, when in power, promises to cut rights and worsen conditions. The precarious class, according to one analysis, has no homeland.

In any case, the middle class that cannot make ends meet can continue to order its 12-square-meter flat with drawers behind the toilet bowl. That's how it is.