Transport strike: self-employed and SMEs face the bosses and stop indefinitely

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Hundreds of small and medium-sized companies -SMEs- and thousands of freelancers in the transport of goods by road are called from 00:00 on Monday to support

, an organization without representation in the National Committee (CNTC) that asks the Government to sit down to negotiate a new legal framework to resolve the "very serious" economic and labor situation that the sector is going through.

In fact, the trigger for the strike call is the price of diesel, but also the profound differences between the self-employed and SMEs and the CNTC or the large employers'

and that in December "they did a paripé but they no longer deceive anyone".

The partners of Platform, gathered in an extraordinary assembly on March 5, rejected the Royal Decree-Law approved by the Council of Ministers on March 1 (following the agreement reached in December between the Government and the CNTC), considering that said regulation

headed for a situation of "total bankruptcy" mainly due to the uncontrolled increase in the price of fuel, the long waiting times in operations loading and unloading, unfair competition and theft in rest areas.

Petitions to the Ministry of Labor and Transport

The representatives of Platform sent last week to the Ministry of Labor and the Ministry of Transport, Mobility and Urban Agenda two separate writings in which their demands are collected. They assure that they will not call off the strike while the Government does not respond to their demands.

The main claim is

, an official body dependent on the General Directorate of Transport.

In addition, they ask that there be

in case of non-compliance, limit the intermediation to a single contractor -establishing direct responsibility to the main shipper in case of non-payment of services to the carrier- and a maximum payment term of 30 days.

Another of the measures that they demand is

by salaried and self-employed drivers, since the royal decree establishes a series of exceptions to the norm.

"We do not want money, we want not to unload. It is for our own dignity,"

says the president of the National Platform, Manuel Hernández, who acknowledges being a self-employed worker and having stopped his truck more than 20 days ago for not being able to cover the extra cost of diesel .

In addition, they request the entry into force of the norm "immediately", and not six months after its publication in the BOE as is currently stipulated in the royal decree.

They also ask for the control and monitoring of transport cooperatives and compliance with the limitation of cabotage to fight against unfair competition.

They ask the Ministry of Labor for retirement at the age of 60 for professional drivers,

considering it a high-risk profession and a single state agreement that is mandatory for salaried drivers, who are asked to support unemployment within their possibilities because « they suffer in the same way this inadmissible situation that exists in the sector ».

"All the demands that benefit them will be taken with the same force and interest as if they were on the road with us," says Hernández.

shortage

Although the main business organizations that make up the CNTC reject indefinite unemployment,

Neither do the unions support the strike.

However, from the Ministry of Transport, the minister, Raquel Sánchez, has said that she will meet with the carriers "in the coming days".

"This is not the time to support a transport strike

, and even less so if it is called indefinitely and without clear objectives of any kind, because it will only serve to further destabilize the complicated situation we are going through due to the invasion of Russia to Ukraine",

.

According to this organization, thanks to the royal decree, carriers have the necessary tool to deal with normal variations in fuel prices, such as the mandatory revision clause of the price of transport based on the cost of fuel.

The callers of the strike believe, however, that the royal decree only offers guarantees for the viability of the activity to the large transport operators, which "are the ones that maintain long-term contracts and directly with the production centers."

To try to alleviate the situation and calm the spirits of SMEs and the self-employed,

to "avoid the disappearance of a significant part of Spanish carriers and the collapse of the supply chain ".

-also integrated into the CNTC-

, and assures that "the 100,000 carriers currently operating in Spain face an enormously critical economic situation".

National Platform, however, ensures that "lowering diesel is not the solution" to the underlying problem.

"The solution is that we are guaranteed to work to live, and not to go bankrupt.

. The Administration has to articulate real measures that respond to this problem and that they are not patches or tricks," warns Hernández.

It would be the same case that occurs with farmers and ranchers who see how cereals, vegetables, vegetables rise but they do not see a penny of these increases.

Hence, autonomous carriers and SMEs accuse large operators and large distribution companies of not passing these price increases on them.

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