The Government advances its meeting with the National Transport Committee to unblock the strikes and assures that “we will not get up” until an agreement is reached
The Government has decided to bring forward the planned meeting with various carrier organizations one day to inform them of the specific measures that the Executive will take to deal with the energy and price crisis that has been causing the entire sector to strike and the blockade of good part of the distribution of products throughout the country.
It will be tomorrow when he holds a new meeting with the Merchandise Department of the National Committee for Road Transport. The President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, has already made it clear that “we cannot leave without an agreement.” During a brief appearance during his visit to Ceuta and Melilla, Sánchez made it clear that “we are not going to get up” from the negotiating table until the agreement is reached. “We are going to look for a sustainable financial solution and we are going to give all the answers so that the transport sector is not damaged” in the face of the current crisis.
Executive sources insist on their commitment to the sector. And they clarify that at Thursday’s meeting “effective measures will be addressed in a concrete and defined way, maintaining dialogue with the legitimate representatives of the sector for as long as necessary because it has the firm will to reach an agreement.”
The tension is of such caliber that the Executive does not seem to want to wait until the Council of Ministers on the 29th to announce its plan. From Economy they insist, as the President of the Government has transmitted, that the third vice president Nadia Calviño “will not leave the table” until an agreement is reached that unblocks the stoppages in transport.
Earlier this afternoon, the Minister for Transport, Mobility and the Urban Agenda, Raquel Sánchez, will meet with the main business organizations in the passenger transport sector, that is, buses, coaches, taxis, VTCs and ambulances, who have called a demonstration for this Sunday to demand that the Government articulate concrete and direct aid that compensates for the sharp increase in the price of energy.
500 million on the table
At last Monday’s meeting, the Government promised to allocate 500 million euros to unblock the problem of carrier strikes and for the food distribution chain to operate normally again. Said sum would come to them directly via bonuses to reduce the price of professional diesel, said the Minister of Transport, Raquel Sánchez, after a long meeting this Monday with the National Committee of Road Transport (CNTC).
And although he pointed out that it is a measure that must be finalized, for the moment tax cuts such as VAT are ruled out because the Treasury considers that Spain already has low taxation in professional transport. Another meeting of said transport employers’ association with the ministry was to take place this Friday, once the European Council has taken place and the exact amount can be specified. These incentives would be assumed by the State and the marketers as of April 1. According to the Chief Executive, “it is an effective measure that will have a direct impact.”
But the organizers of the strike have not backed down. And rather the opposite. The trickle of adhesions to the stoppages has increased during these days. The Platform for the Defense of the Road Freight Transport Sector does not accept this aid to put an end to the strikes because they have agreed with a committee that they do not recognize as representative. He demands a meeting with the ministry to present his demands, which the Government rejects.
The National Federation of Transport Associations (Fenadismer) -which represents more than 50,000 vehicles- and other sectoral organizations such as Fetransa and Feintra joined the strikes on Tuesday. They argue the lack of specificity in the promised aid -which they see as “insufficient in the current situation” of costs- and that there is no “clearer and more detailed commitment” at this point.
In turn, the self-employed demand “immediate” aid for the rise in energy prices. From ATA they assure that the “uncontrolled” escalation of prices directly affects one in three freelancers, more than a million professionals. Lorenzo Amor, president of the association, affirms that other European countries have already reacted and taken measures, while the Government “is late”. “We are to see them come with many announcements but no concrete fact,” denounces this person in charge.
The deployment of the Ministry of the Interior in this strike involves one eighth of the total number of security forces throughout the country. Marlaska maintains a total of 23,598 agents mobilized (16,476 civil guards and 7,122 police officers). Only during the day on Saturday, the Police and Civil Guard escorted a total of 10,000 trucks on their routes so as not to be attacked by the pickets.
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