Spain port employers to consider labor deal Friday

Dive Brief:

A 48-hour port strike has left Spain's terminals at a standstill, as dockworkers recorded a 100% turnout for the organized protest against a labor reform that would affect their employment, El Economista reports.
The strikes follow failed negotiations between the stevedores and their employers, which disagreed on pay and the scale of dockworker retention once the country's labor laws are relaxed.
The event began 8 a.m. Wednesday and will extend to 8 a.m. Friday, local time. Prior to beginning the strikes, the dockworkers placed a new contract offer on the table. The employers' association will evaluate the offer Friday, 20 minutos reports.

Dive Insight:

The noise of cranes, chassis and trucks typically dominate ports, but in Spain, El Pais says, workers' voices have drowned out the machines.

The months-long battle over terms of employment is culminating with a last hurrah by the stevedores, who having lost full employment rights at the ports must now settle for guarantees of pay and job retention. Employers and laborers had reached an agreement earlier in the year, but employers maintain the agreement was conditional to solutions defined later on a port-by-port basis. Workers are protesting that condition, in preference of a universal agreement.

The fact there is a new offer on the table by the stevedores is encouraging, but does not guarantee a new deal. The offer was presented to employers on Tuesday in the hopes of averting a strike. After receiving the deal, employers said they maintained their position but would discuss the results Friday. In the meantime, ANESCO, the employers' association, asked dockworkers to call off the two-day strike, as a sign of good faith to the negotiations.

"[We] reiterate our willingness to exhaust all avenues for dialogue to resolve the conflict," ANESCO said in its statement.

Indeed, the ball is on the employers' court now. Meanwhile, tensions remain high, dockworkers have additional off-hour work stoppages planned for three days next week and Spain's economy is suffering.