Catalunya gambling workers protest at lockdown

Workers in the gambling industry in the Spanish province of Catalunya are campaigning against discrimination as venues remain closed.

Trade associations CCTJ, CC.OO, UGT, FOMENT and CECOT, have all signed up for the campaign demanding that gambling workers “be able to work.” The continued closure of bingo halls, casinos and gambling arcades in the province, while other public-centric places remain open, is not fair, they say.

CCTJ spokesman Victor Duce went on record pointing out that the gambling business was the only urban daytime activity that remains closed without any justification in health or economic reasons.

The organisation’s 8,000 workers, he said, are in a business that is no different from shopping centres, gymnasiums, theatres and cinemas but they are open, while the gambling facilities have to remain shut. He said that the authorities “are making arbitrary and discriminatory decisions based upon prejudice towards the sector.”

He pointed out that 90 per cent of the gambling sector staff had only received the SEPE special coronavirus pandemic disruption benefits for 15 days in October and no more since then.

The CCTJ has joined with the other workers’ trade associations to submit a joint manifesto to vice president Pere Aragonès to include the gaming sector in the de-escalation agenda.