In a joint statement, the two sides indicated that a labor agreement has been reached that preserves about 6,200 union dockworker jobs.
After months of somewhat contentious negotiations, unionized longshore workers in Spain and the companies that employ them have settled a dispute over a recently passed law by the country’s parliament that the workers have said could cost thousands of them their jobs.
In a joint statement released June 29, the two sides indicated that an agreement has been amicably reached.
Spanish labor unions and employers had been battling over reform measures that the parliament approved May 18 regarding the hiring of longshore workers. Under May’s parliamentary action, rules that govern Spain’s ports were changed so that Spanish port loading services were deregulated and therefore open to market competition, with companies being allowed to freely hire non-union labor.
Before the change, foreign and domestic companies that were loading and unloading ships in Spain’s harbors could only hire unionized longshore labor.
In response to Parliament’s action, on June 5 about 6,200 registered dockworkers began staging work stoppages for 48-hour periods to protest the the decision, as well as a breakdown in talks with employers regarding safeguarding those thousands of at-risk jobs.
According to the government, the strikes cost losses of about 12 million euros per day (U.S. $13.7 million), as shipping companies were forced to re-route cargo to other countries.
Under management and labor’s new agreement, ANESCO, the association that represents employers, has pledged to not to alter working conditions for longshore workers during a three-year window, after which the new work scheme that the Spanish legislature approved goes fully into effect.
In return, the dockworkers, who are represented by the UGT Estiba longshore union, have agreed to a 10 percent cut in wages and early retirement for its older members, according to the union.
“ANESCO assumes the guarantee of the continuity of the employment of 100 percent of the workers of the stevedoring,” the joint statement reads.
“For their part, the workers have offered the guarantee of social peace in all companies associated with ANESCO, which have demonstrated, like stevedores, to be committed to the sector and its growth through a real and effective negotiation that achieves stability on the docks,” it continued.
The deal between labor and employers came just before a planned pan-European strike in support of the Spanish dockworkers that had been scheduled for 10 a.m. to noon June 29. Before the Spanish labor agreement was announced, ports in Belgium, Croatia, Cyprus, Denmark, France, Greece, Latvia, Malta, Montenegro, Portugal, the United Kingdom, Spain, Slovenia and Sweden had been planning to take part in the labor action, according to the International Dockworkers’ Council.