- Joseba Ezkurdia, Jokin Altuna, Aimar Olaizola and Mikel Urrutikoetxea have decided to create a Pelotaris Group to "try to find a solution" to the situation experienced by the professional of the ball. "We want this partnership to negotiate the important points that may arise in the future of the professional ball sector," they said in a statement.
"The partnership will be led by four of us and will be exclusively involved in the EPEL League pelotaris in action," explained Joseba Ezkurdia, Jokin Altuna, Aimar Olaizola and Mikel Urrutikoetxea on the playing field. The Pelotaris Association has been created to "seek a way out" to the situation experienced by the professional ball. They have made a number of requests to the League of Companies:
On the one hand, they should start to negotiate with the pelotaris who did not renew their contracts recently. In this respect, they explain that the LPC has agreed that the company should start talking to some of them. On the other hand, to delay the Manomanist championship for one week, which has been approved by EPEL.
As the four pelotaris have announced, all League pelotaris have been offered the opportunity to become a member of the association. "They have a 48-hour deadline for an answer," they explained.
Pelotaris on strike and Baiko meet today
The pelotari of the company Baiko, on strike, Ibai Zabala, spoke harshly of the new Association of Pelotaris: "It will not happen to me that I have marginalized and marginalized a group of pelotaris that has fought over the past five months for their rights and the ball," he wrote. "And less when those movements take place without talking to striking pelotaris," the leader of the Abertzale left added.
It is precisely those responsible for the Baiko company and representatives of the fifteen pelotaris on strike who are meeting this afternoon in Bilbao to try to make progress in the negotiations, after the meeting of two weeks ago has not been successful.
The meeting will be held in an environment of great conflict. Last Sunday, Agirre and Albisu did not appear in the semi-final of the Couples before Ezkurdia-Martija, and the judge of the League of Companies gave them for missing the match (22-0), as the journalist Julen Etxeberria highlighted in the Berria newspaper. The ELA trade union, for its part, filed a complaint against this decision for "violation" of the right to strike. The High Court of Justice of the Basque Country, after requesting precautionary measures, has accepted them and suspended the final of the tournament.
Next weekend the individual championship starts, but it is not clear what will happen.