Workers must be mobilized independently of Spain’s union bureaucracies. Teachers, metalworkers, and public sector workers are already on strike or preparing to strike over contract disputes across Spain and beyond. The way forward for truckers is to turn to the working class, mobilizing broader layers of workers in struggle against the ruthless opposition truckers will face from the state and the banks. With this strike, Spanish truckers are entering into a struggle against a reactionary PSOE-Podemos government that is determined to slash wages and living standards and wage war on Russia.
We are an industry that, if we go on strike, we completely paralyse the country.” One trucker participating in the strike said yesterday morning: “I am happy because I see that people are very eager and they are enthusiastic about striking. Hernández pledged that the strike would continue if the government did not give satisfaction to the truckers’ demands, declaring: “We will continue to aggravate the situation and are relying on the patience of the thousands of families that we represent, and that are striking out of necessity.” Manuel Hernández, the president of the Platform calling the strike, warned however that this situation would not last: “If this strike becomes prolonged, it will be felt in the shelves of every supermarket. Madrid mayor José Luis Martínez-Almeida said yesterday that “for now,” there are no shortages reported at Mercamadrid.
Striking truckers blocked traffic to Mercabarna, the main food-trading estate concentrating fruit, vegetables, fish and meat-processing activities in the Barcelona area. There are growing indications that the truckers strike could rapidly lead to food shortages in supermarkets of major Spanish cities. They held protests in front of municipal buildings in cities including Madrid, Barcelona, and Mallorca.
#March 1 truckers strike full#
They also imposed full or partial blockades of truck traffic into major Spanish ports including Barcelona, Valencia, Bilbao, Tarragona, Coruña and San Sebastián. Truckers blockaded highway traffic or industrial zones in many of Spain’s largest cities including Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia, Murcia, Sevilla, Málaga, Tarragona, and Albacete. In certain regions, including Asturias or El Bierzo, all truck traffic was shut down. The strike was widely followed in its first day by 90 percent of truckers represented by the Platform, disrupting the distribution of cargo from key ports, blocking highways and slowing distribution of food and other key supplies to stores across much of Spain. These consequences are also felt by self-employed drivers, whom we will defend in the demands we advance.” In its call for strike action, the Platform warned that the situation facing truckers is desperate: “Fully 90 percent of small and medium-sized transport companies are in total bankruptcy, even though working conditions are extremely precarious in every sense. Gasoline hit €1.68 and diesel €1.58 per litre, both the highest prices ever recorded in Spain, rising 13.8 and 17.6 percent respectively since December. The surge in inflation, reaching 7.5 percent in February, the most in 14 years, has hit fuel prices especially hard, a situation worsened by NATO and European Union (EU) sanctions on Russia over the Ukraine conflict, which threaten to cut off its oil and gas exports to Europe. The main demand laid out for the Spanish strike by the Platform is a reduction in fuel taxes to compensate for rising fuel prices. Calls are circulating for a French truckers strike on March 21.
#March 1 truckers strike drivers#
Italian truckers are going out on a nationwide strike against high fuel prices and planning protest actions on March 19, and Moroccan truck drivers are currently on a three-day strike protesting fuel prices.
The strike is part of an emerging international movement of truckers against inflation and rising fuel prices now accelerated by NATO-EU sanctions against Russia. Regional trucking associations in the Basque Country and Navarre have also joined in the strike. The strike, targeting Spain’s Socialist Party (PSOE)-Podemos government, was called by the Platform for the Defense of Road Transport of Merchandise, representing smaller truck companies and self-employed truckers. Spanish truckers began an indefinite nationwide strike yesterday to protest rising fuel prices and poor working conditions in their industry.
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