WASHINGTON: Spain’s government are set to be at loggerheads with the port unions which have called nine days of strikes which are set to restrict trade flow. This comes after Spain’s cabinet passed a draft law on Friday to end closed-shop hiring at the country’s port. The union said: “The stevedoring workers absolutely and vigorously reject the royal decree law approved today in the Council of Ministers, an authoritarian and abusive rule that not only goes far beyond what Europe asks for in the ECJ ruling, but also, does not respond to the defence of the interests of Spanish citizens but that of large companies, many of them multinational.” It continued: “Despite the many offers of dialogue and consensus made by stevedores, of requests for the opening of a negotiating table, the Minister of Public Works has preferred to continue with a plan that only seeks the welfare of the employers. So, evident is this lack of equanimity that this afternoon has quoted businessmen, not workers, and with the approved decree, to a meeting in the Ministry.”
The new rule will bring its restrictive port labour practices in line with the rest of the European Union. Currently, companies do not have control over the hiring and firing at Spanish ports but the new law will permit them to choose their own staff. Since 2014, Spain has previously been fined approximately $21.5m for failing to bring port labour practices in line with EU norms. Therefore, the new law hopes to cut the amount of fines received in the near future. Spanish port workers’ union concluded: “The only measure of pressure left for workers to draw the attention of public opinion and the rest of the political groups to this abuse of government is to exercise their right to strike. They will do so from March 6, as announced. The stevedores appeal to the responsibility and common sense of the other political groups so that this initiative, which hides an employment regulation file for 6,150 workers organized and with capacity for collective bargaining, is not approved in Congress.”
