Transport strike could involve 5,000 Malaga drivers

Transport strike could involve 5,000 Malaga drivers

A freight transport strike was announced in Spain last week by the National Road Transport Committee, scheduled for December 20, 21, and 22. According to sources in this sector of laopiniondemalaga.es, the action could well involve a fleet of around 9,100 vehicles in the province of Malaga. This figure includes both light and heavy vehicles.

Of this total, the number of employees that are usually managed in this sector in the province is slightly higher than 5,000. As it is an employer’s call, it will be up to the companies to decide over the next few weeks whether or not to follow the strike action.

This strike has been called by business associations due to the multiple problems that are affecting the sector right now. An increase in the price of fuel – believed to be around 35 per cent in the last 12 months – has had a knock-on effect on the transport sector.

In the words of the association, they say they feel “abandoned” by the Government. As they warned a few days ago, “Only a radical and urgent change on the part of the Government and clients could avoid this conflict”.

The strike only affects public transport services

It should be clarified that this strike action only refers to public transport service. These are companies that are professionally engaged in this activity. In contrast, there are no stoppages called for the private transport of goods. A company that is dedicated to any other economic branch, and that has its own fleet of vehicles to serve its own clientele, is not called to second the strike.

The National Road Transport Committee has cited among its grievances, pending lawsuits from the protest package of February 20, 2020. These include the prohibition of drivers from loading and unloading trucks, the non-implementation of the eurovignette, the mandatory application of the fuel cost review clause, and the construction of safe rest areas for professionals.

Carriers say that “the industry’s patience and reasonable negotiation channels have been exhausted, coupled with the absolute lack of sensitivity on the part of many of their customers in the current economic climate”.

“They take advantage of the dominance position granted by the current regulation of the contract for the transport of goods by road, which is even causing a huge problem of lack of professional drivers, given the degrading and inhuman treatment in the conditions in which they carry out their work”, pointed out a spokesperson for the Spanish Confederation of Transport of Goods (CETM).

The companies have reiterated the “serious economic situation” that the self-employed and small and medium-sized companies are going through due to the increase in the price of diesel. Their demand is that the Government immediately adopts measures to be able to incorporate these fuel increases in the rates that they charge their customers, as reported by laopiniondemalaga.es.

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