Hundreds of people have participated this May 1st in a demonstration called by CCOO and UGT in Tarragona under the slogan Peace, housing and salary. The police route has begun in Plaça Imperial Tarraco and has run through Avinguda Prat de la Riba and Carrer Ramón y Cajal until culminating in the Monument dels Despullats on Rambla Nova. According to security force records, the mobilization has gathered around half a thousand attendees.
Economic Impact and Union Context
The unions have linked the call with the industrial and labor situation of the demarcation. CCOO has denounced the lack of business investment after several employment regulation files. The general secretariat of CCOO in Tarragona, Mercè Puig, has warned about the progressive dismantling of local chemical activity.
"We do not observe investments in the chemical sector, but quite the opposite. We see an industrial estate where companies are dismantled, reduced in size, and no new capital is arriving"
Mercè Puig, general secretary of CCOO in Tarragona
The organization has linked this trend to the recent layoff announcements in several companies in the Tarragona regions. In parallel, UGT has called for the unblocking of negotiations for the metalworking sector agreement, which began just two weeks ago. Jorge Porté, general secretary of UGT, has highlighted how the productive fabric has changed.
"It is a sector that has been synonymous with stability for people and that dynamic is being lost. What used to represent the middle class with well-paid industrial jobs, today shows higher levels of precariousness. Companies base their competitiveness on reducing working conditions"
Jorge Porté, general secretary of UGT
The quantitative context reinforces these positions. The latest data from the Active Population Survey reveal that more than twelve thousand people increased the unemployment figure during the first quarter of 2026 in Camp de Tarragona and Terres de l'Ebre. The total volume of unemployed people amounts to fifty-six thousand five hundred units, which represents a growth of more than 28.3% compared to the previous period.
Workplace safety and territorial proposals
Faced with the escalation of accidents, Porté has requested to update the regulations for the prevention of occupational risks. The administrations must respond to three fatal accidents registered and more than two thousand incidents that occurred in the first four months of 2026 in the Tarragona and Ebro regions. The union delegate has demanded tougher sanctions and reinforced technical inspections. In parallel, he has urged respect for the agreement reached with the regional government on educational matters, a pact that he has described as positive.
The march has also channeled specific demands for the health and railway network. Participants have called for maintaining a 24-hour stroke care service in Tarragona, as well as improving the frequency and quality of regional transport. Union entities have added demands for salary increases, reduction of the working day, and extraordinary regularization of migrant people to the protest, closing the rally under the slogan "Against wars and fascism, more rights and more unionism."
The mobilization has made evident the structural discontent of the local productive fabric while the agents in charge of public order controlled traffic through the central axes. Union leaders will maintain institutional pressure on collective bargaining deadlines and the implementation of urgent measures to curb the fall in jobs in the Tarragona industry.