Fernando del Baño, who has a transport business with his brother, highlights that “it is not that we earn less, but that we already lose money”
“I have never gone on strike, but when everything is lost, everything is the same to you, and there is no other choice but to mobilize to protest.” With that firmness, Fernando del Baño, 55, expresses himself, who together with his brother has been dedicated to the transport business in Mula for three decades. In his case, it does not represent the profile of the small self-employed person with his vehicle who is the main protagonist of this mobilization, since they have two companies with thirty trucks, but even so, he has fully joined in supporting it because “it is not that we earn less, but that We are already losing money,” he laments.
“Here we are to denounce what happens to us with the rise in fuel prices, together with some of our workers, who are aware that if the situation does not change we do not even have enough to pay them,” he warns. And it is that he considers an average surcharge for freight “of more than 150 euros” in its movement of goods at the national level to be unsustainable, by focusing its operations on the short route.
“We do excavations, demolitions, as well as transport other merchandise, machinery, and we are one of the workers we have when it comes to facing the task on a day-to-day basis,” emphasizes Del Baño. An activity that they have to develop in the current context “marked by a very strong crisis”. Regarding those who have denounced that behind this transport strike there are political interests and that there have been cases of threats on the pickets, Fernando makes it clear that “everyone has their ideas, this is not from one party or another”, to the At the same time, he indicates that “nobody likes incidents, besides, I respect whoever wants to work. I’m not going to break anything, just as I wouldn’t want them to do it to me.” Of course, they remind those who underestimate them that “we are not a minority.”
With three children and two grandchildren, Fernando reiterates that “I never imagined that I would have to go on strike”, but everything is so complicated that “we had to go out into the streets so that the rulers would know.” And it is that “fuel taxes account for more than half the cost.” So “we don’t know what will happen.”
A shock plan to avoid the bankruptcy of fishing
The Minister of Water, Agriculture, Livestock, Fisheries and the Environment, Antonio Luengo, and representatives of the Federation of Fishermen’s Guilds and the Federation of Aquaculture Companies of the Region of Murcia held a working meeting yesterday to agree on the necessary measures to transfer to the Government of Spain in order to avoid the mooring of the fleets, given the loss of profitability caused by the increase in the price of fuel and the rest days imposed by Europe.
Luengo pointed out that “from the regional government we are going to request the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food the need to apply a shock plan to make the fishing sector viable, which is experiencing very difficult times, to the point that many have advanced biological strikes and mooring their ships because they cannot afford the cost of diesel.
The counselor assured that “it is necessary to reduce, without further delay, the price of diesel”, one of the main expenses they face, and also of gas and electricity, which affect their production costs.
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