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STRIKES

Spain’s dockers up fight for jobs with two-day strike

Spain's dock workers went on a two-day, nationwide strike Wednesday, stepping up a months-long fight to preserve their jobs after the adoption of an EU-triggered reform they say puts them at risk.

Spain's dockers up fight for jobs with two-day strike
Photo: AFP

The work stoppage risks impacting the economy of a country in which over 60 percent of exports pass through its main ports, particularly in the food and auto sectors, which are key engines for growth.

The new decree deregulates the hiring of dock workers to load and unload ships in Spain at the request of the European Union, which ruled that Madrid must reform the sector or face sanctions.

All 6,150 dockers around Spain are on strike, bar those who will ensure a minimum service for activities deemed essential, a spokeswoman for their main CETM union told AFP.

“Minimum service is being carried out scrupulously for perishable goods and first necessity goods, and also for passenger traffic, but all other activity is completely stopped in 39 ports,” she said.

Dockers had already gone on a partial, three-day strike earlier this month, alternating an hour's work with an hour's stoppage.   

The government said this partial stoppage alone caused a loss of €36 million ($40 million).

Under the previous Spanish system, domestic or foreign companies could only hire dockers from specific, already-established organisations that provide personnel, and no other firm. 

The new decree, adopted last month, allows companies to contract workers wherever they want — which employers argue will increase the competitivity of Spanish ports.

But unions say this threatens the jobs and salaries of Spain's current dockers, and want guarantees that they will all keep their posts.   

In a bid to try to resolve the deadlock, they have proposed that dockers will immediately reduce their salary by five percent — but only for companies that pledge to stick with the organisations they are part of.

Apart from being key for Spain's exports, the country's main ports also act as a transit point for exports from Europe to the rest of the world.    

According to the Platform for Investors in Spanish Ports, they contribute 20 percent of the transport sector's GDP and more than one percent of overall economic growth.

TRAVEL NEWS

German train strike wave to end following new labour agreement

Germany's Deutsche Bahn rail operator and the GDL train drivers' union have reached a deal in a wage dispute that has caused months of crippling strikes in the country, the union said.

German train strike wave to end following new labour agreement

“The German Train Drivers’ Union (GDL) and Deutsche Bahn have reached a wage agreement,” GDL said in a statement.

Further details will be announced in a press conference on Tuesday, the union said. A spokesman for Deutsche Bahn also confirmed that an agreement had been reached.

Train drivers have walked out six times since November, causing disruption for huge numbers of passengers.

The strikes have often lasted for several days and have also caused disruption to freight traffic, with the most recent walkout in mid-March.

In late January, rail traffic was paralysed for five days on the national network in one of the longest strikes in Deutsche Bahn’s history.

READ ALSO: Why are German train drivers launching more strike action?

Europe’s largest economy has faced industrial action for months as workers and management across multiple sectors wrestle over terms amid high inflation and weak business activity.

The strikes have exacerbated an already gloomy economic picture, with the German economy shrinking 0.3 percent across the whole of last year.

What we know about the new offer so far

Through the new agreement, there will be optional reduction of a work week to 36 hours at the start of 2027, 35.5 hours from 2028 and then 35 hours from 2029. For the last three stages, employees must notify their employer themselves if they wish to take advantage of the reduction steps.

However, they can also opt to work the same or more hours – up to 40 hours per week are possible in under the new “optional model”.

“One thing is clear: if you work more, you get more money,” said Deutsche Bahn spokesperson Martin Seiler. Accordingly, employees will receive 2.7 percent more pay for each additional or unchanged working hour.

According to Deutsche Bahn, other parts of the agreement included a pay increase of 420 per month in two stages, a tax and duty-free inflation adjustment bonus of 2,850 and a term of 26 months.

Growing pressure

Last year’s walkouts cost Deutsche Bahn some 200 million, according to estimates by the operator, which overall recorded a net loss for 2023 of 2.35 billion.

Germany has historically been among the countries in Europe where workers went on strike the least.

But since the end of 2022, the country has seen growing labour unrest, while real wages have fallen by four percent since the start of the war in Ukraine.

German airline Lufthansa is also locked in wage disputes with ground staff and cabin crew.

Several strikes have severely disrupted the group’s business in recent weeks and will weigh on first-quarter results, according to the group’s management.

Airport security staff have also staged several walkouts since January.

Some politicians have called for Germany to put in place rules to restrict critical infrastructure like rail transport from industrial action.

But Chancellor Olaf Scholz has rejected the calls, arguing that “the right to strike is written in the constitution… and that is a democratic right for which unions and workers have fought”.

The strikes have piled growing pressure on the coalition government between Scholz’s Social Democrats, the Greens and the pro-business FDP, which has scored dismally in recent opinion polls.

The far-right AfD has been enjoying a boost in popularity amid the unrest with elections in three key former East German states due to take place later this year.

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