Spain: CCOO trade union critical of gender pay gap in fisheries canning sector

‘Pescar derechos’ (fishing for rights) is the slogan the CCOO trade union has adopted to launch a campaign calling for gender pay equality in the fishing-related canning industry. During the campaign launch on the Cantabrian coast that is known for its fishing and canning industries, the CCOO trade union explained it was not just a question of improving working and salary conditions for sector employees, but that it was also an issue of security greater equity in terms of companies’ decisions over gender-based tasks, which to date have been resulting in both employment contract and salary disparities. According to the trade union most of the some 1,200 employees in the region work under ‘discontinuous-fixed’ type contracts, which intersperse periods of employment with bouts of unemployment that vary in line with fishing seasons and canning industry demand levels. The trade union criticizes the way in which the sector undervalues female work and makes is more precarious and less well paid that that of males. According to the union, 94% of canning factory workers are female, who find themselves restricted to production tasks (fish cleaning and preservation) and working under uncertain haphazard conditions depending on fish catches. Males however tend to carry out better paid functions, work from more stable employment contracts, and receive on average between 15% and 20% more in pay.