CCOO has called a strike in road freight transport for December 23 and 24, as a protest against the Government’s delay in approving the reducing coefficients that would allow professionals in the sector to access early retirement without suffering penalties.
The union will detail this Monday the scope of the mobilizations and maintains that it has been warning for months about delays in issuing the mandatory reports. It also complains that, after the announcement of the electoral call, the Directorate General for Management of Social Security has unjustifiably halted the processing of those reports.
In this scenario, the Federación Nacional de Asociaciones de Transporte de España (FENADISMER) has expressed its “surprise and rejection” and has described this pressure measure as “completely unjustified and disproportionate.” In its view, it falls on the transport companies, despite the fact that these have supported and promoted, together with the trade union organizations, the request to apply reducing coefficients to professional drivers.
The business organization stresses that companies are not responsible for any administrative failure and attributes the blocking of the procedure to the “inaction” of the Ministry of Social Security and Migration, which, as it recalls, has had all the mandatory reports since July, but has stopped the call of the Evaluation Commission after the electoral advance.
For this reason, Fenadismer believes that the protest actions should be directed against the headquarters of that Ministry and not against transport companies, which share the demand for early retirement for professional drivers.
“The calendar chosen by the union calling the strike is incomprehensible. It is difficult to understand that a sector-wide strike be scheduled for dates after the elections—when political pressure on the current Executive lacks effectiveness—and that it be made to coincide with such a symbolic and sensitive moment as Christmas Eve, which would cause serious and unnecessary harm to both transport companies and all citizens and to the supply chain during the holiday campaign,” the federation says.
At the same time, Fenadismer has advanced that it will attend the mediation event before the Interconfederal Mediation and Arbitration Service (SIMA) with a willingness to engage in dialogue, although it has asked CCOO to re-evaluate its decision and withdraw the strike call.
The federation insists that it will continue working to achieve early retirement in road transport that reaches both salaried drivers and the sector’s self-employed.