Bearing in mind that the air traffic controllers are threatening to go on strike this month if they don’t continue to get their 200,000€ (plus bonus and overtime) a year, and as I’m flying, I thought I’d better double check my legal rights in case of cancellation due to strikes.
My flight is cancelled
I am entitled to a full refund, or a free change of flight. If I am stuck at an airport which is not near my main residence, then the company must pay for my hotel (if the next flight is overnight), food and drink. But since the strike is outside of the airlines control, I don’t have the right to indeminization for the lost flight (usually up to 600€).
The Local Police of several capitals – including Seville and Granada- are on strike over proposed pay cuts.
However, instead of actually striking, they are refusing to issue standard traffic fines, except in severe cases.
Instead, they are issuing warnings, or using outdated fine books which have not been withdrawn by the townhalls (which allows the fined motorists to recurr the fine).
The protest has been called the “semana sin multa”, or Semana 0.0 by the press.
Granada police, who estimate they will have a pay cut of around 150€ per month per agent, say that Granada townhall will loose some 200,000€ of fines in a week.
Police have warned that they will continue to apply the law and will arrest or fine severe traffic offenses. But minor fines will not be issued. The number of fines being issued have dropped by around 75%. The protest is supported by the Independent Syndicate of the Local Police, their union. Elsewhere in Spain, the National Police and certain barracks of the Guardia Civil are threatening to adopt the same protest.
Motorists are “over joyed” and taking full advantadge of the stike to avoid paying in car parks / double parking, etc. I imagine traffic in Granada must currently be a nightmare….
Civil servants, annoyed at a 5% pay cut (they get paid 14 times a year and can’t be fired) are striking to ensure the protection of their “human rights”.
Good lads. Stick up for yourselves. Meanwhile, we in the real world will keep on worrying about the fact that Spain is bankrupt and no longer attractive to tourists.
I have just seen that two Association of Judges (Asociación de Jueces Francisco de Vitoria (AJFV)) and the Foro Judicial Independiente (FJI) have broken ranks with the other two main judicial associations and brought the first strike date forwards to the 18th of Feb; it will be mainly a “symbolic” protest with the main event still, as programmed, on the 26th of June. The other two associations (Asociación Profesional de la Magistratura (APM) & Jueces para la Democracia (JpD), ) are decrying this decision saying that by breaking ranks they are brining into disrepute the whole strike.
Now, I haven’t covered the Judges strike as I’m currently somewhat anti-judiciary system (and go an interesting shade of vermillion everytime I see a photo of Su Senorio, el Ilustre D. Corbos), but it does ocurr to me to wonder, if the Judges (who, one supposes, are selected for their ability to judge, to reason, to debate and to evaluate) can’t come to an agreement between themselves behind locked doors without bringing the brawl out into the open and having metaphorical fistfights in front of the press, what hope do the rest of us have for impartial decisions?
Well, the strike appears to be over, although a few isolated unions still refuse to return to work the unusually forceful approach taken by the Spanish government seems to have broken the back of the strikers. Petrol & diesel has reappeared in almost all the petrol stations, shops are restocking and the press has returned to it’s usual round of stories like “youngster destroys a bar in Zaragoza with a chain saw – reason unknown”.
Meanwhile, the Government has had a radical change of heart in it’s immigration policy – a year ago saw an iniciative to pay immigrants to come to Spain to work, now it says it will pay a million of these workers to return as there is no work for them. If they return their resident and work permit and return to their non EU home country, they will receive all of the Social Security money they have accumulated in two payments, 40% before leaving and the rest upon arrival. Anything to keep those unemployment figures down, eh?
ZP, better known as the President of Spain, announced (for some reason during a press q&a session with the President of Mexico, who looked a bit bewildered) that he was “cracking down” on the strikers, and said that Spain was almost back to normal. “Zero tolerance towards the strikers” is now the offical line from Madrid, and this was backed up as one striker was sentenced to 8 months in jail for rebelling against authority.
Three more lorries were burnt in Barcelona, and the lorry driver who was seriously burnt in his cab the other day said that “he’d hunt down” the chap who set his lorry alight and then he’d “better watch out”. Seems to be feeling better then. His wife, not to be left out, called the arsonist a “terrorist”. Meanwhile, ZP said that “burning lorries is not the solution”, an intelligent observation I would say. He also repeated his refusal to implement a minimum tariff on road transportation.
Meanwhile, millions of litres of milk are being wasted a day as there is nobody to pick it up, 1,5 million litres daily just in Andalucia according to COAG, which is costing Spanish farmers a million euros a day. Antonio Rodriguez, a spokesman for COAG, said that small dairy farmers were “In water up to their necks”. What I want to know is, what happens to the sewer farms when that much milk hit’s the processing plants?
The Government has moved to reassure us all repeating it’s claim that it is normalising food deliveries “irrespective of the strike”. In fact, an underling went so far as to call the situation “optimistic”. Tell that to SEAT, who gave 8000 workers the day off becuase there are no parts in their factory.
These are the injuries sustained by a farmer after police charged a demonstration held this afternoon in front of the tax offices in Almeria. There were almost 20 civilians injured, plus some 13 police officers, although the worst injury reported was a severe cut to the upper arm of a woman.
Farmers, deliverymen, drivers and other strikers went to a rally this morning called by COAG and ASAJA, bringing with them a large number of boxes of fruit and veg, which they left in front of the tax office “in a symbolic lieu of taxes”. However, when police ordered the crowd to calm down, they were pelted by fruit. According to eye witnesses, they “ran” into the offices and barricaded the doors until reinforcements arrived, upon which they proceeded to charge and disperse the crowd.
The civil governor of Almeria, Miguel Corpas, has promised to talk again to the Ministry of the Environment to ask again for a rebate on taxes imposed on local farmers and fruit producers due to losses. Local union chief Francisco Vargas said that this was “mierda”, and co chief Gongora said “We have nothing” and promised to carry out another manifestation in El Ejido tomorrow morning at 11:30.
This afternoon, at aprox 14:15, I was present as the last few drops of petrol were sold at the Los Gallardos petrol station, and the cones brought out. I did take a photo of the lucky chap who went off with a can full of petrol, but he asked me not to put it on the net in case people came round to his house and tried to steal it.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of the Interior has announced that it will take strict measures to continue the flow of essential basics through the blockades, and has announced that so far 51 lorry drivers have been arrested for scuffles with the authorities. More than 25,100 police agents have been activated across the country, plus the autonomous police forces, and have been ordered to crack down on any more road protests. Quite a few lorries have been confiscated so far.
“Striking is a right” announced D. Rubalcaba, minister for the interior, “but so is the right to basic essential foodstuff, medicine and petrol”. He also announced that, irrespective of the ongoing negotiations between the strikers and Fomento, deliveries by government lorries would continue. Interior Ministry has reported that as of this morning 2,953 trucks have been escorted, while it has ensured that carriers who want and can not carry out their work can ask for help from his department. Petrol, he announced, “will be delivered, come what may”.
However, Pedro from ES Los Gallardos told me that he still doesn’t know when any deliveries will appear. “We’re down the end of of the list” he said, gloomly.
Buying oranges online none the less, today is the day when supermarkets will start to run out of food as the strike bites deeper into the economy, warn local experts. With many petrol stations already dry, local press stuck their oar in by urging us all to keep calm by publishing guides on “how to store petrol in your basement” and “where to panic buy the last few drops of water & gas”.
First blood was spilled yesterday as a striker was run over in Granada, and again in Portugal. And overnight a lorry driver asleep in his van suffered severe burns when his lorry was set alight, apparantly in protest at his strike breaking. Those of you who like such things can see a video of the remains of the chap who was run over online at El País, not for the faint of heart. This apparantly put a dampner on negotiations last night, as a number of delegates walked out until the matter had been resolved.
Meanwhile, central government have put together an offer of 54 points to the strikers, who are currently considering it. It does not, according to a government spokesperson, include some of their central demands, such as a cap on diesel costs for lorries and minimum transport prices. At least two of the largest transport unions have not yet started to consider the deal.
Locally, a number of pickets were setup in Almeria, but most people seem to have decided to bunk off and go to the beach. Carboneras port was blockaded for a while, but according to an eye witness it was all in good fun. Petrol stations along the coast are dry, and Super Turre was almost out of meat yesterday. I know of at least one delivery chap from Huercal de Almeria who was told that if his lorry went out on deliveries they’d “slash his tires”, which seems harsh. Motorways around the capital cities are intermittently being blocked by convoys of bored lorry drivers, so watch out for those. Catalunia was shipping petrol out by it’s own fleet of government lorries, to keep the traffic moving.
How long is this going to go on? Remember that it’s not just Spain, it’s also Portugal, France, Italy and parts of the UK… French administration on strike as from today, including trains! If one of these groups gets a good deal from their government, then everybody else goes back to the strike. Personally, I’m checking the tire pressure of my bike as soon as I finish this.
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