"I have been cold and fear. I have known what it is to lose a job and sleep in the street. I have realized who my friends were and who did not. And I have discovered that there are still good people in the world. It has been an experiencethat has helped me to mature and has been worth it. "They are the words with which Adrián Román, an employee of the cleaning of Alicante, summarizes the epic he has lived in recent months.
A struggle that has led him to spend the outdoor 25 days in front of the door of the City Council to protest his dismissal.Román ended up unemployment for taking several medical casualties to be the chronic diabetes he suffers.This Ute-Aliante Friday, the Union of Companies awarded the waste collection and cleaning contract of the city, has informed him that he is incorporated again into his workforce.
His determination has been key for the hire to reconsider his decision.And social pressure has done the rest.His case has been widely disseminated by both local and national media.The Alicante Barrender, 31, married and with three minor children, has become the paradigm of the collateral effects of the last labor reform.
Dozens of companions concentrated in front of the Town House three consecutive days, between 23 and 25 last January.The tripartite that governs the city, composed of Guanyar, Compromís and the PSPV, supported him.And the signs of support and affection by anonymous citizens, who approached each day to infuse them, have happened in recent weeks.
Román himself has confirmed to El País in a telephone conversation the happy outcome of its history.This morning, the head of UTE-ALIANCE staff has communicated her readmission.The company recognizes all its age, although it will have to return as logical the money of the settlement.The employee will return, predictably, to work next week.He thanks the contract, participated by the businessman Enrique Ortiz, who is involved in several causes of corruption, which has "reconsidered" and give his "arm to twist.""There are no victors or defeated here. It was an injustice that has been repaired," he said.
With an 18 -year -old work experience, Román was fired last November.With a newborn child and two others 4 and 11 years old, he looked in the street.His sin consisted of having accumulated fourteen days of low medical in two months.An absence necessary to treat chronic diabetes that he suffers and threatens to leave him blind.The sweeper came to spend 25 days in front of the door of the Alicante City Council, in the coldest January that is remembered in these latitudes in recent years.And his protest, made with folding chair, sleeping bag and homemade banner, has generated an unprecedented wave of solidarity.
UTE-ALICANTE receives a rain of millions of euros every year (435 in twelve exercises) of the municipal coffers for providing the cleaning service.In that confluence of societies he plays an inusa leading role, owned by Enrique Ortiz, prosecuted for handling his will, supposedly, the urbanism of the city with the help of the former PP mayor, Luis Díaz Alperi and Sonia Castedo.The Anti -Corruption Prosecutor's Office has requested 17 years in jail for rigging the Barbing Collection Contract of La Vega Baja, all in the framework of the Brugal case.
The awarding of the service said goodbye despite the fact that his clinical history of the sweeper leaves no doubt.Román suffers an "advanced diabetic retinopathy" that forces him to receive intraocular injections from time to time in both eyes so as not to lose sight and have caused continuous visits to doctors.In November he underwent complex surgery, a vitrectomy.The operation occurred on November 23, justFive days after the mercantile finished an 11 -year employment relationship with 14,700 euros of compensation.
To these surgical interventions, to that treatment, the losses of six and eight days that the sweeper in March and April of last year, respectively, and that their bosses wielded to apply a dismissal for objective causes, respond.These fourteen days of absenteeism were consigned as "common disease" due to their low duration, not as a convalescence by a long -term disease, which allowed the winner of the service to take advantage of a much discussed article of the latest labor reform.
Román spent his first night in front of the town hall on January 3.Then he set up a tent, but removed it for fear that they could steal or break it."The night of Kings was terrible because of the gentuza that passed by party here," he said those days.But he was never alone.Every day, people who did not know anything about to see him to insufferate him.
The Public Employee Union (SEP), to which it is affiliated, also did not neglect.And the media echoed their protest, which led to dozens of cleaning workers three consecutive days."I want to thank everyone. Especially my family, who has always been there, and my union. Social networks have also done a lot," says the worker.Now he wants to celebrate with his wife, in intimacy, his personal victory and seek the "calm", return the "tranquility to the head."Román admits that his struggle can serve as an example, and not only in the workplace: "If you have a goal, with sacrifice, everything can be achieved."
