With a slam and tension. This is how the last negotiation of the Sectoral Table of the Local Police of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, which is trying to reach an agreement for the recovery of the Unipol (Police Intervention Unit) dismantled more than a year and a half ago and which is now trying to be restored in a hurry before the elections. This Thursday, while a CSIF unionist read the last letter sent by the union organizations (registered on January 5 and according to the unions there has been no response) to find out more details about the new group, the police chief, Carmen Delia González He said: “Be honest, they are fake, I can’t keep quiet, what you don’t want is for the group to come out,” according to audio that this newspaper has had access to. After adding that she did not intend to continue there “wasting time”, she apologized to the councilor present, the person in charge of Human Resources, Purificación Dávila, and she left the room.
The head of the Local Police of Santa Cruz de Tenerife prevents a union assembly at the headquarters alleging COVID alert
Further
The unions received this Thursday a new proposal on the creation of this police group, a document that they will study these days and they were summoned to a meeting of the Sector Table next Tuesday. Union sources indicate that they have requested that the police chief’s forms be included in the minutes of the Board and will request in a statement that it be vetoed from future negotiations due to her attitude.
For their part, municipal sources emphasize that “indeed, at the beginning of the meeting there were some disagreements as a result of the negotiation itself”, but they add that it was redirected and finally it was agreed to continue said dialogue in the coming days. The same sources add that this negotiation will focus on specific points that will be technically worked on by the area and the union representatives themselves before the Sector Roundtable resumes next week.
At the meeting this Thursday, members of the unions with representation were present, the director of Security of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, the director of Human Resources, the local police commissioner, Carmen Delia González (as technical advisor to the administration) and the Councilor for Human Resources, Purificación Dávila. The Councilor for Citizen Security, Evelyn Alonso, did not attend.
Unipol was dismantled in June 2021 after the lack of agreement. Last November, the Santa Cruz de Tenerife City Council published an informative note assuring that “volunteers were needed to create a new citizen security group in neighbourhoods”. In the opinion of the signatory unions in a letter from last January (CSIF, UGT, CCOO and Asipal) it would be “a covert call where no application deadlines, job profile, requirements for the performance of the positions, psychophysical conditions of the agents. In addition, it does not specify the number of jobs that make up the security group in neighborhoods.
For this reason, they demanded information such as the nature of the provision or mobility offered, whether it is a question of filling the vacancy temporarily or permanently, the profiles of each position offered, what specific training is required and how it is valued (course, training regulated official, private, etc.), in addition to other data related to the scale, deadlines… The unions also want to know if a new operating group will be formed or if the selected personnel will be distributed among the existing ones.
Union sources tell this newspaper that they never received a response to that letter. They explain that they are not against the creation of this police group, but they consider that in order to negotiate working conditions they must have information. In addition, they believe that there must be criteria to access it, so that it does not occur “by finger”. In the meeting this Thursday it was mentioned that the agents who have volunteered so far are all men, for which reason one of the union representatives points out that the process should be reconvened so that they can apply for these positions taking into account the new negotiated conditions and the female colleagues can assess whether they want to access it.
Union sources also point out that these changes with the creation of the new group may also affect the rest of the agents who do not opt for it. And they give as an example that in 2019 there were 367 members of the local police, 32 of them were at Unipol. Now, they add, there a total of 316 police officers and it is intended to create a body of 30 people with fewer staff.
For this reason, in the coming weeks they will continue to fight for the selection process to be reopened and various issues to be clarified, including how with fewer staff in other operating units it will be possible to comply with the agreement ratified at the end of last year to guarantee the rest of the agents.
Filed for celebrating a pandemic party
The chief commissioner of the Local Police of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Carmen Delia González, has been involved in other controversies. Last October, the unions made ugly that They will be denied the holding of an assembly of officials due to “COVID alert”. Precisely, in 2020 she herself was filed for having held a party at police stations during the state of alarm due to the pandemic.
However, he continues to lead this position since after the motion of censure against Patricia Hernández (PSOE) by José Manuel Bermúdez (Canary Islands Coalition) backed by the Popular Party and Evelyn Alonso, expelled from Ciudadanos and now Councilor for Security, the disciplinary file was allowed to expire.
In June of last year, she was also criticized for having taken vacations in full special order for the celebration of Carnival when she had issued an order to the staff two months earlier announcing that, “during the period between 23 and 26 June, both inclusive, permits would only be authorized in duly justified exceptional cases”.
