The largest police union is fractured by the without justifying expenses of its leader
Justicia Policial (Jupol), el sindicato surgido de la plataforma Jusapol que aglutinó en 2017 a policías y guardias civiles para reclamar la equiparación salarial con los Mossos d’Esquadra en pleno desafío independentista, vive tiempos convulsos. La decisión de cinco de los seis miembros de su comité ejecutivo de convocar una asamblea extraordinaria para el próximo 2 de junio con el fin de reprobar y cesar al secretario general, José María García, amenaza con fracturar la organización mayoritaria dentro de la Policía Nacional, con 25.000 afiliados, un tercio de los agentes. Chema —como es conocido por sus compañeros— García está acusado de realizar una gestión personalista, escorar a Jupol a posiciones extremistas y cargar gastos personales, entre ellos entradas de cine, ropa, perfumes y fármacos, a las cuentas del sindicato. Él lo niega. Los dirigentes de una quincena de comités regionales y provinciales le han mostrado su apoyo. Fuentes de la organización admiten que existe “un riesgo serio” de escisión.
The beginning of the divergences in Jupol's bosom dates back to March 3 last year, shortly before the outbreak of the pandemic and the statement of the alarm state, according to sources from the sector that now promotes García's dismissal. That day, hundreds of police officers demonstrated at the gates of the Congress of Paisano and with Anonymous masks convened by the union. The objective of the concentration, which had moments of great tension when the protesters overflowed the police cord, was Salary comparison with regional police. Among those concentrates, a non -signature pasquín was distributed in which the agents were called to support, a week later, an undercover strike - the police and civil guards are prohibited from exercising this right - for which they recommended them The loss due to illness. The unemployment was, finally, a failure: the number of agents who did not go to work for medical reasons was lower than usual.
“That day we gave an unfortunate image of both the police and of trade unionism, and some of us understood that Jupol had to be packed towards positions far removed from the true objective with which he was born, first Jusapol, and then both the union and jucil [the association of the association of theCivil Guard arising from the platform] ”, acknowledges a former leader of the organization who asks to maintain anonymity to the tense environment that has been installed within the organization in recent weeks.Jupol, with his hard speech in front of the government, had devastated the union elections held a few months before, in June 2019, when obtaining eight of the 14 positions reserved for the representatives of the agents in the Police Council, the Joint Bodyof negotiation between these and the Ministry of Interior.On the basic scale, which is the one that encompasses the most police, they made 26,000 votes of the nearly 41,000 cast (63.4%).
When the March demonstration was held, Vox had already become the main speaker of the union claims, displacing other political formations, mainly citizens, which had supported them at the beginning of the Justapol platform."In a short time we went from being a union with firm positions, but open to dialogue, to another with an uncompromising position that has made the complaints in the courts against the interior dome his only strategy," criticizes the former leader.Last January, the Provincial Court ordered to investigate the Director General of the Police, Francisco Pardo, for one of these complaints, in which he was accused of not facilitating the police protection material against the Coronavirus at the beginning of the pandemic."These are complaints of the failure, which they seek only to make media noise, but that do not contribute anything to the union struggle for the rights of the agents," criticizes this same source.
Increasing divergences
Since that demonstration, the divergences in the direction of the union have been increasing until, on May 5, in the request to celebrate a meeting of the Board of Directors of the Union to approve the celebration of an extraordinary assembly in which carry out the dismissal of the Secretary General and the call for elections to choose the new address. The petition was signed by five of the six components of the Jupol Executive Committee: Aarón Rivero, Pablo Pérez, Laura María González, Fernando Guillermo Calleja and José Ignacio Valverde. The only one who did not support her was Garcia himself. The initiative was taken shortly after an affiliate filed a lawsuit against the union and Garcia himself for not providing information on the organization's expenses and, above all, of the positions associated with the credit cards available General, despite collecting different transparency measures in its statutes.
https://t.co/fxrzrbsxpf
— E. Hazard Tweets Tue Apr 16 11:49:06 +0000 2019
That first lawsuit was transformed shortly after a complaint in which the same affiliate detailed a relationship of supposed expenses "without justifying" that the Discoles leaders had detected.Among them, an invoice of 39.65 euros for the ITV of a motorhome owned by the Secretary General was included;410 euros in clothing purchases in different establishments;two invoices in a hotel in Soto del Barco (Asturias) for 180 and 35 euros respectively;the purchase of two film tickets for 12.60;Two pharmacy bills for a total of 35.45 euros, in addition to consumption in cup premises, and a rental (long -term rental) of more than 900 euros per month for the high -end vehicle in which the secretary general moves.
The decision of the Executive Committee meant the implementation of a management commission to organize the assembly and the withdrawal to the leader of the union of their powers, including the control of the accounts.A leader admits that even the locks of the offices at the headquarters in Madrid have changed to prevent Garcia or related people from accessing them.All this while the General Directorate of the Police materialized a sanction of 14 and a half months of suspension of employment and salary to the leader of Jupol as the author of two offenses, a serious and a very serious one.The latter, for exercising as a partner and sole administrator of a company without the mandatory authorization of compatibility.This suspension has made Jupol lose one of his eight positions on the Police Council, which Garcia occupied, and that he passed to another police union.
Sources close to the promoters of the initiative against the union leader deny that the alleged diversion of funds from the union for personal expenses is the main cause to request their cessation, although they admit their importance."The amount is not high, but it does reflect that Chema had turned the union into his farmhouse," says another former leader who asks that his name is not given."He has acted authoritarianly until imposing changes in the structure of the union and in the statutes to perpetuate himself in office and control the union," denounces another jupol release, which points out that one of these maneuvers was the suppression of the economic controls ofThe organization to assume direct control of finance.The country has tried to contact José María García to know his version, but he has not responded to messages and calls.
Internal hostilities
After the call of the Assembly, hostilities have been unleashed among the supporting committees of the measure and those that have been set on the side of the Secretary General.The leaders of seven regional committees (Asturias, Cantabria, Murcia, Navarra, the Basque Country, Catalonia and La Rioja) and eight provincials (Cádiz, Almería, Ávila, Córdoba, Granada and Jaén) recently issued a statement in which they denied legitimacy to theManager who now directs the union and claimed Garcia's return to all his powers."They represent about 8,000 affiliates," details a source close to those who promote the cessation of the Secretary General, who are confident in maintaining the support of the rest of the committees and, above all, of the affiliates."Many of these committees have not consulted the bases to show their support for Chema," he adds.
In fact, in the last days affiliated by Jupol they have moved to Madrid for the manager to show them the accounts and, specifically, the expenses under suspicion.Some have subsequently issued communications that have sent their peers about what is seen.“Four people who yesterday [last Wednesday] were in Madrid we agreed in the same disappointing sensation, we looked into each other and we could not believe it.So much time, so much effort, so much illusion thrown by the soils.[…] As neutral observers and clearly absent from all personal interest, […] we have concluded by unanimous consensus that the previous Secretary General, José María García, has been delegitimized as a representative of all the jupoleros ”, collected four affiliates displaced from Bizkaia inA text to which this newspaper has had access.
A leader of the Valencian Community admitted in another text, after seeing the accounts, the existence of "several expenses of difficult justification in the field of trade union work and its representativeness, always from the point of view of the ethical code [of Jupol]", although it was finally limited to recommending the participation of affiliates in the Assembly that, on June 2, it must decide the cessation or not of the Secretary General.If so, new elections will be convened to choose an address."There will be seen if there is a split that nobody wants," says a prominent member of the union.