Clashes between police and striking shipyard workers
01 March 2004
Demonstrations by shipyard workers of the Grupo Imaz shipbuilding company, run by the Sociedad Estatal de Participaciones Industriales (SEPI, State Company for Participations in Industry) saw violent clashes between policemen and workers in several Spanish cities. The workers went on a fifteen-day rotating strike in protest at the failure to reach agreement in their year-long negotiations over pay, contract renewals and the company's failure to secure any contracts. While the company argues that the workers are making unrealistic wage demands, the workers claim that the main problem is the failure by management to secure any new contracts in the last eighteen months, which they see as an indication of incompetence, or even lack of will to secure the contracts. Negotiations are currently at a standstill, although they have not been called off.
On 10 February there were clashes in Cádiz, as workers closed down a bridge on a main road and a railway line, while there were protests and barricades were erected in the three factories in the province. The police had armoured vans, and fired rubber bullets during clashes near the bridge. Workers reacted by throwing missiles, including bolts, at the police officers. On 12 February, demonstrations were held in Cádiz, Seville (both in Andalusia), Ferrol (in Galicia) and Sestao (in the Basque Country). Clashes took place between police and workers from the three factories in the province of Cádiz (in Cádiz, San Fernando and Puerto Real), which saw 16 persons injured as police fired rubber bullets and gas canisters at workers after they had blocked off traffic on a road, as well as railroad tracks. In Cádiz, over a hundred police officers surrounded the perimeter of the factory when around 1,000 workers were holding an assembly inside. In Sestao, there was around an hour of clashes in the morning of 19 February, which saw around 30 workers injured following clashes with the police. A press officer from the metalworkers' section of Comisiones Obreras (CCOO) trade union noted that in spite of the danger that rubber bullets represent, they are being used frequently when police are called upon to disperse demonstrations. He also said that CCOO has filed a lawsuit in relation to the surveillance and video recording of workers' assemblies by the company. Grupo Imaz and police sources criticised the workers for using violent methods of protest.
Trade union officials have criticised the "repressive and provocative" policing, and the government representative was accused of treating the workers like "terrorists". The workers' committee representative Ramón Linares was critical of the surveillance and recording of workers' assemblies, for which he blamed the government envoy in Cádiz, Maximiliano Vilchez. He is considered responsible for "ordering the installation of facilities [including cameras] to spy the workers meetings and conversations between members of the [workers'] committee in the trade unions" meeting rooms. Manuel Chaves, president of the Andalusian regional government announced that he would report the company and the government envoy for allowing such practices.
Comisiones Obreras (www.ccoo.es); El País 31.1, 11, 13, 20, 21.2.04.