Spanish ports are facing a 48-hour stevedore strike from 8am on Wednesday 14 June; that is, it will continue uninterrupted until 8am on Friday.
The strike has been called by the stevedoring unions (Coordinator of Workers of the Sea, CC.OO., UGT, CIG and CGT) given the absence of an agreement with the employers (Anesco) in the framework of the open negotiation on-going since the recent reform of the sector approved by the Government.
The 48-hour strike follows the three days of partial work stoppage that stevedores already held on Monday, Wednesday and Friday of last week.
These strikes did not completely paralyse the ports, as they only affected the odd hours and strict minimum services were provided.
However, the strike that started on Wednesday may have a greater impact, given its continuing nature and duration. Thus, it could generate losses exceeding the 36 million Euro estimated to have been lost with last week's strikes, according to estimations from the Ministry of Public Works.
The minimum services are the same. Thus, they guarantee 100% of stevedoring operations for perishable or dangerous goods and to supply the islands, Ceuta and Melilla.
For the rest of services, the "percentage of services will not fall below 50% of the operations carried out in a comparable day, taking into account the schedule, type of cargo and terminal."
The strike affects a key sector of the economy: the loading and unloading of ships at ports, as 86% of the products entering the country, as well as 60% of the exports, undergo this process. We are talking about goods with a value amounting to about 350,000 million Euro.
Source: Europa Press
