The cessation of activity will occur before campaigns as important as ‘Black Friday’ or Christmas
The carriers start this midnight indefinite strike called by the National Platform in Defense of the Transport Sector that could cost the economy 600 million euros a day, as it is a cessation of activity before campaigns as important as ‘Black Friday’ or Christmas.
This loss forecast has been made by OBS Business School professor Eduardo Irastorza, according to data extracted from the report on ‘Black Friday’, during which it is estimated that the sales in Spain increased by 706%, although the record in the European Union could be set Germany, where the rise is expected to be 2,418%.
The platform, which brings together freelancers and small businesses, Although its number of associates is not known, it mobilizes in protest against the non-compliance by the chargers (customers of carriers) of the law that prohibits low-cost work and the free participation of drivers in loading and unloading tasks.
This is the same organization that, last March, starred in a transport stoppage that lasted 20 days, causing serious problems in the supply chain.
Unlike that protest, which was joined by some other associations such as Fenadismer, Fetransa, or Feintra, andn this occasion, both the employers’ organizations and the sectoral organizations grouped in the National Committee for Road Transport (CNTC), They have not supported the strike.
As a consequence of that first strike and a previous threat from the CNTC in December 2021, between last March and August two royal decree-laws were approved with measures to improve the situation of the sector agreed between the national committee and the Ministry of Transport.
In early August, the royal decree-law 14/2022 economic sustainability measures in the field of transport, which incorporates changes in Law 15/2009 of the land freight contract, to try to ensure that the price of transport is higher than the actual individual costs and expenses incurred by the carrier.
breaking the law
However, small carriers report that loading companies “continue neither offering nor paying prices that give reality to the costs that truly give rise to a fair, healthy and viable economy”, as well as the passivity of the Administration in the control of the application of the law.
Therefore, in a letter sent at the end of October to the Minister of Transport, Mobility and Urban Agenda, Rachel Sanchez, the platform suggested a change list (copied from the French transport code) to the royal decree law of August to ensure that it achieves the desired objectives.
The ministry promised last Thursday, in a meeting with the management of the platform, to “reinforce” inspections to ensure that carriers don’t work below your costs and approve, in the coming weeks, a 2023 inspection plan, which will include, for the first time, a specific line of action to control prices, delinquencies and loading and unloading, in accordance with the approved regulations.
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The platform requested that such commitment announcements be collected in a document signed before midnight this Sunday, so that the carriers know that they are going to comply and in what period, to be able to assess the call for the strike, what has not happened, so the mobilization keep going.
During the first day of strike, this Monday, carriers will participate in a demonstration in Madrid who will take a walking tour from Plaza de Carlos V (Atocha) to the Ministry of Transport, and in which the platform hopes that associations from other sectors such as agriculture, livestock and hospitality will also participate.