The general strike convened this 11 November has caused the ports of the Comunitat Valenciana to be “practically paralyzed,” as union spokespeople from UGT and CCOO have emphasized.
The general secretary of UGT PV, Tino Calero, has said that “port activity is practically paralyzed, both in the ports of Valencia and in the rest of the infrastructure of the Comunitat.”
In the same vein, Francisco Martínez, head of the Mar sector of CCOO PV, has explained that since seven in the morning an information picket has been operating at the accesses to the Port of València, where “a very important and majority turnout” has been recorded, which has been around 80%.
“We’re pretty satisfied. Everything that is the sector was stopped; there were no hands, nor any ship operations, and only some minimum services have been established that we believe are excessive and that we are going to evaluate whether we challenge them. The flow of traffic, especially heavy traffic, has almost been nonexistent,” he summarized.
This union representative insisted that “the main shipping companies and sea multinationals collect a lot of money and this is not reflected in the workforce.” “I think this will bring about a change of pace; we are going to make people change and demand more of their rights,” he asserted.
From the Port Authority of Valencia, they pointed out that the impact of the strike on the Port of València has been “low in terms of overall disruption, although its operational impact has been high due to the type of work that has been halted.”
They added that up to midday no incident had occurred, although loading and unloading work of ships had been stopped, while attention to reefers was ensured, that is, goods that require controlled temperature.
Monitoring in other productive sectors
As for the scope of the stoppage in the rest of the activities, Tino Calero emphasized that in the industrial sector “practically more than 70 of the companies that have union representation have stopped, which is a very relevant figure.”
He also focused on the meat products sector, which is additionally immersed in its own strike that faces its third day over the negotiation of the collective agreement, where “a 100% stoppage has occurred in the companies.”
The UGT leader pointed out that “it also had a relevant impact on public services, at least on the night shift.”
"And, of course, what we expect is that during the rest of the day levels of participation in the workplace will continue to increase, but also in the civic sphere with the demonstrations and the mobilizations that are taking place in the cities of the region during this morning and, fundamentally, also in the demonstrations that are being called in the main cities of the Valencian Community this afternoon at 18.00."