MADRID, Nov 15 (NNN-XINHUA) – Truck drivers in Spain began an indefinite strike yesterday, against the rising cost of living.
The labour action, their second this year, is organised by the unofficial Platform for the Defence of the Transport Sector.
Back in Mar and Apr, the country’s truckers staged a 20-day strike, which caused major problems in the national supply chains.
The Platform, which brings together self-employed drivers and small freight companies, does not have the support of major haulage firms or Spain’s two largest unions, the General Union of Workers (UGT) and the Workers’ Commissions (CC.OO).
The demonstration kicked off in the centre of Madrid, with many drivers parking their vehicles close to Atletico Madrid’s Metropolitano Stadium, and then marching along the central Paseo de la Castellana, disrupting traffic in the city centre.
The strikers criticised the “lack of commitment” of the Ministry of Transport, Mobility and Urban Agenda, in following through on the agreement that ended the strike in March. Transport Minister, Raquel Sanchez, insisted there was “no reason” for the labour action.
“This isn’t going to help anyone, quite the contrary,” she commented last week.
According to Eduardo Irastorza, professor at the OBS Business School, the strike, which comes just 11 days before “Black Friday” and in the runup to the Christmas holidays, could cost the Spanish economy up to 600 million euros (621.4 million U.S. dollars) per day, especially since sales around Black Friday could increase by as much as 70 percent.
Early indications are that, in several of the country’s logistics hubs, such as in the ports of Algeciras (south-western Spain), Barcelona and in Mercamadrid, a wholesale market in the capital, Madrid, the effects of the strike have been negligible to date.– NNN-XINHUA
