Spanish shipyard workers continue protests

8 October 2004

Spanish shipyard workers continued their anti-privatisation demonstrations and protests on October 1 by blockading traffic in the port of Ferrol in the northwestern region of Galicia. According to reports, up to 4,000 shipyard workers halted traffic for 20 minutes with barricades, some of which were set on fire. The protest followed another strike and demonstration earlier in the week at the yard when some 10,700 walked off the job.

The workers are in dispute with the state shipbuilder Izar, which controls ten yards owned by government industrial holding company SEPI. Under plans to partly privatise the shipyards, SEPI proposes to separate naval dockyard activities, the most profitable, from civil shipyards which are due to be partly privatised.

The future of the shipyards is in doubt due to competition from Asia and the threat of bankruptcy amid European Union demands that Izar repay 300 million euros ($372.8 million) in aid that the EU said breached competition rules.

In the city of Gijon in Asturias, 200 students joined 410 workers in a march on the city centre to protest against the government’s treatment of the shipyard workers.

Info on past conflicts:
http://www.infoshop.org/inews/stories.php?story=04/09/24/8681377