The main unions in Spain, CGU and CCOOthey summoned this Monday a transport strike which will affect the Black Friday Already Christmas. The protest will begin on October 28 and continue indefinitely, harming the most important days of Christmas shopping, such as December bridge.
Thus, the UGT and CCOO unions called for a strike in the transport sector to demand the retirement regulations anticipation of professional drivers.
This mobilization affects approximately 250,000 truck drivers salaried workers, although many are expected to independent drivers also join, which could increase participation to nearly 500,000 workers.
Furthermore, the strike involves the bus driverswith an official figure of 98,000 workers, although it is estimated that the real number, counting all jobs in the sector, could be higher.
The transport strike
The unions denounce a “systematic blockage” on the part of Sánchez Government and employers around this request for early retirement, a measure they consider crucial due to the harsh working conditions faced by professional drivers.
The CGU and CCOO represent approximately the 70% of workers of the sector, which underlines the relevance of this call and the potential impact that the strike could have.
“This is a request that has been made since 20 years ago and this has been blocked for more than a decade”, they argued. Indeed, on June 7, they gathered in front of the gates of the Ministry of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration.
CCOO and UGT defend early retirement in the sector due to the high rate of road accidents due to the high age of workers. driversespecially after 55 years.
The call concerns all drivers who provide services in the transport of road freightwhether light vehicles or heavy vehicles, road transport of people using mechanical traction vehicles with more than nine seats, urban public transport of people and medical transport.
Concretely, the strike will take place on October 28, November 11, 28 and 29, December 5 and 9, and will be of unlimited duration from December 23. The unions explained that they had already taken all possible measures to avoid the strike, such as rallies, both at the provincial and state level, contacts with all relevant ministries and with different political groups, but no solution was found.
CCOO and UGT request that this early retirement be carried out through the formula for applying the reducing coefficients because of the difficulty and danger of the job.
Until this coefficient is specified, they request partial retirement with replacement contract, voluntary for the driver who can continuously accumulate the percentage of hours he must work and who, in his place, integrates a young person, as provisional measure.
