Valencia dockers announce five days of strikes

The formal reason given for the downing of tools is the non fulfilment of the 1995 collective bargaining agreement, which reserves the right of stevedores to receive and despatch cargo. According to the port unions, the port stevedoring company, SEVASA, no longer wishes to guarantee such a demarcation in any future collective bargaining agreement.

SEVASA has reiterated its willingness to keep on negotiating with the unions and that 99% of the existing agreement could be rolled over unchanged into the new one.

The position taken by the unions has been heavily influenced by the recent ruling by the Court of Justice in Luxembourg that Spain must adapt existing stevedoring practices in its ports to bring them in line with agreed directives, which effectively means allowing competition.

As part of earlier negotiations, union representatives had wanted measures incorporated into the new collective bargaining agreement that would have further alienated Spain’s position in relation to the rest of Europe, not to mention with its own national ports authority.