The carriers, summoned to an indefinite strike from this midnight – Chi News Popular

Madrid, March 13 (EFE) .- The carriers are called by the Platform for the Defense of the Freight Transport Sector to support, starting this midnight, an indefinite strike in the face of the “very serious” situation in the sector and working conditions ” inadmissible”.

The convening platform, a minority and without representation in the sector’s dialogue body with the administration – the National Committee for Road Transport (CNTC) – has sent a long list of demands to the Ministries of Transport, Mobility and Urban Agenda, Labor and Social Economy such as the prohibition of hiring road freight transport services below operating costs.

The platform justifies the strike on the fact that the administration “continues to negotiate with the shippers (who are the members of the National Transport Committee) instead of answering the SOS calls from the real protagonists of the sector”, who are the truckers of walking”.

They affirm that this organization is “formed, directed, accredited and legitimized by the grassroots sector, which is the one that really owns and drives the trucks (medium and small companies and drivers), which in turn is 90% of the vehicles that materially carry out the activity”.

On the other hand, the large employers in the sector, despite warning of the brutal escalation in energy prices, aggravated in recent weeks by the war situation that is taking place at the international level, after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, do not support the strike called by the platform.

And they have warned, like the Government, about the messages on social networks that announce possible shortages due to the effect of the strike and call for calm because they defend that they will not occur.

Sources from the Ministry of the Interior have assured that the security forces will carry out the necessary operation to guarantee normality on the roads.

The Spanish Confederation of Freight Transport (CETM), the majority, with 65,000 companies and 260,000 vehicles, 80% of the Spanish fleet, considers that this is not the time to strike and asks the Government to reinforce the actions of the security forces to avoid problems on the roads starting this Monday.

For its part, Fenadismer has asked to respect carriers who decide to join the strike and also those who choose to continue providing their activity.

According to this organization, the situation has become unsustainable due to the unstoppable and daily increase in the price of fuel, which currently represents more than 50% of the operating costs of the activity.

The Association of International Road Transport (ASTIC) has warned of the economic debacle, due to the shortage of all kinds of goods, which we Spaniards could face if the Government does not immediately adopt exceptional measures to help companies in the sector in the face of the uncontrolled escalation of fuel prices.

The merchandise department of the CNTC, in which the three associations are represented, along with some others, has asked the Government for “an urgent and immediate meeting”, to promote the exceptional measures that the situation requires, while at the same time ensuring that “He has not called any transport stoppage, nor does he believe that at this juncture it is an effective solution.”

The Minister of Transport, Mobility and Urban Agenda, Raquel Sánchez, has announced that she will meet in the coming days with the CNTC to assess, in the current situation, the possible prioritization of some of the measures of the royal decree-law to improve sustainability of the transport of goods by road and the operation of the logistics chain, approved on March 1.

One of the measures included in this regulation is the establishment of a mandatory revision of the price of transport when the cost of fuel varies from the moment of contracting until the effective performance of the transport.

CCOO also considers that the problems of the sector are not resolved with strikes “like the one called by a platform of self-employed drivers”, but with negotiation and with the opening of a social dialogue table.

However, the union understands that the strike call shows that the royal decree of March, agreed between Transport and the CNTC, “does not solve the problems of the sector.”

(c) EFE Agency