Valencia stevedores call off strikes

Earlier, unions called 24-hour strikes for March 5, 18 and 20, and on 8, 9 and 10 of April. A further series of seven strikes, involving alternating hourly stoppages, were called for March 9, 11, 13, 22, 25 and 27.

Instead, port unions are concentrating efforts on preventing changes being made by the National Ports Authority to the current stevedoring model, which effectively grants a monopoly to a single operating company, or SAGEP, in each port. Following a ruling by the Court of Justice in Luxembourg, the NPA is seeking to abolish the SAGEPs and their exclusive rights to control stevedoring provision within ports. Such a move runs contrary to the main aim of negotiations at Valencia, which is to secure the exclusive rights of stevedores in carrying out all complementary activities at the port.

Valencia’s SAGEP, SEVASA, for its part, put out a press release emphasising “the importance” of the Port of Valencia returning to normal as soon as possible, or risk losing traffic to rival ports.