Dozens of workers march from the shipyard to the Quitapellejos bridge to protest the “inaction” of the local Administration
Damián Moreno, a worker in the Navantia Prevention department, has been in the shipyard since 1984 and since then he has been cycling the vast majority of days. He knows better than anyone how “dangerous” the Navantia road gets, because every day more than two thousand workers enter the shipyard in three shifts. The main one is the one in the morning, which starts at seven and ends in the early afternoon. “I have had mishaps of all kinds, yes, none dangerous, but I have experienced some that have left sequels for life in my colleagues,” he explained yesterday in the Plaza del Ayuntamiento, in the second protest staged by the workers to demand more security at the entrance and exit of his work.
The first and most demanding was at ten in the morning. In it, around two hundred workers from the shipbuilding company traveled from the Santa Rosalía gate to the Quitapellejos bridge. They did so with a banner that read: «For our safety. Safe access now ». In the minds of each one of them was only his partner Óscar Rodríguez, who just a year ago lost his life when he was run over in the pedestrian crossing of that bridge.
The march served, in addition to paying tribute to this former member of the works council, to demand increased security measures in the area of the accident and at the accesses to the shipyard.
Mobility plan
In the manifesto read at the end of the tour, they attacked the City Council directly, because “unfortunately, little has changed the scene since our colleague died. The project started more than a decade ago with a mobility plan, promised over and over again, still does not come out, ”said a member of the works council, Alfonso Carretero.
The improvements that have been demanded for more than three decades “are not only for the colleagues who work daily at Navantia, but also for all citizens who demand a new mobility, a sustainable, safe and current mobility that they boast so much about”, he added. Carretero addressing the other protesters and criticizing the “inaction” of the local administration. The reading of the manifesto was followed by the placement of a bouquet of flowers, in a luminous sign that indicates the proximity of a pedestrian crossing, the same one where he was run over and his partner Óscar died. They also attached an aluminum loop to one of the nearby eucalyptus trees.
Ana Barrera, the worker’s widow, regretted the passivity of the City Council when it came to remedying insecurity in the area and said that “today [ayer para el lector] The real demand for the rights of Navantia workers to go to work safely begins ”.
Promotion of the bike and the bus
For years they have been asking for the adaptation of the pedestrian accesses to the shipyard, specifically the Senda de los Elefantes, with a renovation of the pavement, the installation of public lighting and the elimination of the parking lots next to the Rambla de Benipila. They want the La Algameca road to be a cycle-street to promote the use of sustainable transport, the expansion of car parks, the promotion of public transport and the use of shared vehicles.
Another problem to be solved by the City Council is the elimination of traffic jams that there are twice a day around the Quitapellejos bridge. The most problematic takes place from two to three to a quarter in the afternoon, due to the coincidence of the departures from Navantia and the Arsenal with those of other workers from the old town and the end of classes in various educational centers.
The City Council plans improvements with 1.6 million from European funds
The Cartagena City Council insisted yesterday that it has six million euros to launch its mobility plan, for which it has already requested Next Generation aid, the massive recovery fund of the European Union (EU). The Navantia access plan aims to obtain 1.6 million and includes the construction of new accesses for pedestrians and cyclists around the Algameca road, which will not only benefit shipyard workers. In this sense, local government sources announced that they are already in negotiations with the Navy, the Segura Hydrographic Confederation (CHS) and the Port Authority to promote the project, in terms of permits and reports. The mayor, Noelia Arroyo, told LA VERDAD that in this initiative the main protagonists will be the bike lanes and the improvement of traffic safety.
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