ALPEG extend deadline for protest demo to March 06
Spanish pensions dispute
ALPEG President Manuel Garcia Bado has declared that pensioners are getting impatient at the lack of information and progress in their long standing claim for the payment of revalued pensions.
Speaking to the media yesterday, he declared that if no solution is forthcoming by March 1st “we will be obliged once again to carry out a protest demonstration at the frontier.â€
Sr Garcia Bado said ALPEG, the pensioners’ association of former Spanish workers on the Rock, will give the Madrid authorities two more months after the December 31st deadline.
“We cannot wait any longer to see if a solution is at last forthcoming.
We believe we are being very understanding in extending the original deadline we gave the Spanish Government to negotiate an agreement with Britain.
As things stand, the protest seems a likely option.”
Alpeg is claiming revalued pensions payments and arrears since the local pensions fund was frozen by the previous GSLP (Gibraltar Socialist Labour Party) administration.
Sr Garcia Bado said that to date 1,900 pensioners had died without seeing a solution to the pensions issue.
Meanwhile mayor of La Linea Juan Carlos Juarez, one of ALPEG’s main backers, said he had been informed by the Spanish Foreign Ministry (Ministerio de Asuntos Exteriores MAE) it would be difficult to reach agreements with the British Government at present, since UK is heavily engaged in commitments related to the EU presidency it currently holds. Sr Juarez noted that despite advances in other cross-border areas, no progress had been achieved on this specific issue.
From The Gibraltar Chronicle - The Independent Daily First Published 1801
Comment on this News report - Click on the ‘Comments’ link below - You can also Discuss this Story in our Forum