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Spain bus driver strike looks set to continue into December

Industrial action is impacting local and long-distance bus journeys throughout Spain

After a partial cancellation of the Spanish bus driver strike when a pension agreement was reached between employers and one of the unions representing the striking workers, public transport passengers in Spain were quietly optimistic that there would not be widespread travel disruption this Christmas, but they were perhaps overly hasty.

The General Union of Workers (UGT) decided to abandon its bus drivers’ strike scheduled for the end of this week and well into December. The nationwide industrial action, which began on Monday October 28, was expected to impact intercity and city buses, school transport and other passenger services.

Much to the relief of those reliant on public transport across the country, an agreement has been reached with the Spanish Confederation of Bus Transport (Confebús) to lower the early retirement age of these professional drivers.

Despite this positive outcome between the authorities and UGT, which is the main union representing workers, several other reps have decided to maintain their strike action, including CCOO, CGT, Sindicato Libre de Transportes and USO.

The sticking point is in the small print. In order for the early retirement agreement to pass into law, Confebús will now need to ask the Evaluation Commission to develop new regulations. However, the general secretary of the Road and Logistics sector of FSC-CCOO, Francisco José Vegas Rosado, has pointed out that the Commission could still veto the application, particularly if there is not enough money in the public coffers to cover the cost of early retirement.

The general secretary of the Federal Sector of Road Transport of the General Confederation of Labour (CGT), Raúl Martínez Alcalá, has confirmed that the drivers his group represents will also be continuing with the planned strike action. The agreement between Confebús and UGT is little more than “an act of faith”, he said, and the decision makers could backtrack at any time.

According to the statement sent by Confebús, “the trade union organisation UGT and the employers’ association CONFEBUS have agreed to cancel the strike call in the road passenger transport sector scheduled for November 28 and 29, December 5 and 9 and December 23 onwards”.

The document states that “the agreement consists of requesting, jointly, once the new Royal Decree on the establishment of reduction coefficients to bring forward the retirement age comes into force, the start of the procedure for the establishment of reduction coefficients for the early retirement age of personnel who perform tasks as bus drivers”.

If no new deal can be reached with the remaining unions on strike then the next round of work stoppages will go ahead as planned for Thursday December 5 and then Monday 9. However, there are minimally assured transport services which ensure that at least 50% of buses run on the affected days.

In other news: Renfe launches Black Friday tickets starting from 7 euros

Image: CCOO

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