You might not be aware of it but there have been nationwide, dock strikes going on, and Motril Port has not escaped this industrial action.
The 30 dock handlers, 18 of whom have permanent contracts while the other 12 have temporary ones, carried out the last of the programmed strike actions on Friday the 9th but reserve their ‘closed shop’ sector.
Nothing moves on the nation’s docks without the powerful dock handling union say so: importers/exporters and shipping lines have no alternative but to kowtow to their complete monopoly.
No national government has never done anything about it but now the present government has no other option than to break the monopoly, owing to a European court decision.
The amount of damage that can be done to the national economy is immense if the ports grind to a halt – even a go-slow will have disastrous effects.
In fact, already shipping companies are moving business to other countries, such as North Africa, rather than have their freight sitting in ships that cannot be moved until they are unloaded/loaded.
The Central Government has issued a Royal Decree to open up the sector, hence the present strike action. In Motril, the strike had a 100% following, according to the union Spokesperson, Germán Rodríguez on the three days of strikes last week: Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
According to the said spokesman, shipping entering and leaving Motril Port was reduced by 70%, why the Government calculates that a total of 36m euros was lost in the nation’s ports – that’s 12m euros on each strike day.
But it’s not just the shipping companies that have been hit, but the road-transport companies that service the ports, too.
Back to Motril Port, five ships were handled last week, which were ferries and cruise ships, as well as freighters carrying perishable goods as they were included in the minimum services agreement.
The normal, weekly ship handling consists of 17 to 14 ferries, one container ship, one for transporting the gigantic blades belonging to the wind turbines and another ship carrying paper pulp for the paper factory in the Motril-Port area
Some shipping companies have been able to reschedule their ships, keeping them out to sea, so that the arrive this week when the ports should be functioning normally, it is hoped.
The trouble is that if talks don’t produce an agreement, the strike will take on consecutive days, rather than alternative ones: this coming Wednesday and Thursday.
IN case you’re wondering what sort of salaries these workers take home, the monthly salary is quite impressive, running into several thousand euros, thanks precisely to the ship handling monopoly.
Lastly, there is not one woman dock handler in the whole of Spain, because the said union will not allow it.
Cuddle little buggers, ain’t they?
(News: Motril, Costa Tropical, Granada, Andalucia)