Voces del Prado

Alfonso Pérez Sánchez and the trade unions

Luis Lapausa Arango, General Operations Service Technician (Carpenter), 1960-2008

When Franco passed away and trade unions were legalised, I became a member of UGT. At the time the trade unions here were CESIC, CCOO and UGT. That was in 78 or 80 more or less. We wanted higher wages, adjusted to our responsibility.
With Pérez Sánchez we dealt quite a lot because he was the director here when we went on strike. We were on strike and the poor man seemed to be a bit afraid. "What type of mess have they gotten into?" But he looked out for us and agreed with what we were demanding. And of course, he would tell us, "I can speak to the minister or someone at the Ministry of Culture to see what they can offer you. As the director, I cannot just come out of the blue and say here you are and dish out the money. That has to be discussed with the Ministry of Culture to get them to approve it. That man was sure open to discussion.