The road passenger transport companies and the unions have not reached an agreement to avoid the strike that will begin next Monday, October 28, and will last several days during the months of November and December. The strike is not avoided, at least for the moment, unlike what happened on Thursday night, when an agreement was reached in the freight transport sector.
The Association of Urban and Metropolitan Public Transport (ATUC) and the Spanish Confederation of Bus Transport (Confebus) explain, through a statement, “not having reached an agreement despite all the efforts made to avoid the strike.”
In principle, the strikes called by CCOO and UGT are scheduled for this Monday, October 28, November 11, 28 and 29, December 5 and 9 and the strike will become indefinite as of December 23, unless there is an agreement before. In this topic we summarize the reasons behind this strike. In addition, a concentration of workers in the sector is planned for Monday at 12:30 in the morning, in front of the headquarters of the Government delegation in Madrid.
The two associations point out that “they remain open to new conversations to try to unblock a situation that would mean a general strike in road passenger transport starting next Monday, October 28.” In this case, the ATUC and Confebus associations bring together road passenger transport companies and have more than 95,000 workers.
It should be remembered that professionals in the road passenger transport sector, who work in vehicles with more than nine seats, are called to strike. That is, buses and minibuses. Also, drivers of publicly owned urban public transport.
“It is the employers’ associations that have left the table and we do not know the reason,” explains Francisco José Vegas, general secretary of the Road and Logistics sector of the Federation of Citizen Services of CCOO. “They did not want to continue with the negotiation.” Regarding the possibility of reaching an agreement over the weekend, he points out that “there is time between now and Monday, but as of today the conditions do not exist. It is with the employers that we have spoken the most, both within the mediation and outside. Something that was practically done, they have taken a turn. They will know,” he emphasizes.
The two associations of bus companies indicate that they have “asked the representatives of CCOO and UGT to prepare a study before going to the Ministry of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration to urge the start of the procedure for setting the early age of access to the retirement of bus drivers.” They justify that “without this study, the main associations in the passenger transport sector cannot make any decision in this regard, as they are unaware of the implications that a measure of this magnitude could entail.”
On Thursday, the unions and employers of the road transport sector did reach an agreement that will allow the establishment of reducing coefficients for the anticipation of the retirement age of professional drivers. Specifically, they talked about making it possible to offset the increase in the Social Security contribution that the application of reducing coefficients in the business contribution would entail with a decrease in the current contribution for work accidents and occupational diseases of the group. And, at the same time, expand measures regarding the prevention of occupational risks.
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