• Self-employed strike and 'SMEs' face the bosses

  • Sector Defense Platform "They take us for fools"

"We have no news of the different ministers to whom we have sent our requests

. No one has called us and they have to receive this organization, which is the one that brings together small and medium-sized companies. As long as this is not the case, I am afraid that we are going to continue to aggravate the situation and wear out the patience of thousands of families who are unemployed out of necessity".

Miguel Hernández

, president of the Platform for the Defense of the Transport Sector, which has called an indefinite strike for truckers that started this Monday,

warned that the conflict can only get worse if the Executive does not receive them

.

Hours before, the Minister of Transport, Mobility and Urban Agenda,

Raquel Sánchez, assured that they were monitoring "the situation exhaustively"

together with the Interior.

In addition, they plan to meet "in the next few days" with their interlocutor with the sector, with whom they are in permanent contact: the

National Committee for Road Transport

(CNTC).

The problem is that

the calling platform of the strike is not represented in said committee

, whose members - the big employers - do not consider "representative" or valid interlocutors.

"It cannot be that 10% manage the other 90%. If the government sits down to negotiate with the wrong people, they are condemning this to drag on and lose patience.

We will not tolerate being challenged and laughing at our face

".

without great havoc

Hernández made these statements on a day where the effects of his strike call did not cause great damage, although the president of the platform stated at noon that the trucks were not moving through Spain.

"We already knew that the big companies were going to work, but the small and medium-sized ones have all stopped"

on a first day that he described as "awareness to convince colleagues."

But

while regional associations such as those of Cantabria and Aragón joined the strike, others such as Andalusia stood out

.

The truth is that

the informative pickets took place at different points of the geography

, especially at the entrances to polygons and industrial areas.

But, in the early hours of the afternoon, the DGT only had localized retentions in three points on the peninsula: in the vicinity of

Lugo

, on the A7 as it passes through Murcia and on the AP-7 in Girona, towards the border.

In the morning, problems had also been reported in the Barcelona Free Trade Zone and the Port of Tarragona.

Likewise, messages of calm were transmitted from the government side.

"The supply of supplies is guaranteed, although the strike will have an impact," said Minister Sánchez,

who appealed for "calm and tranquility" so as not to introduce "more uncertainty to the public at this time."

The head of Agriculture spoke along the same lines

: "In Spain we have a high level of food autonomy

, so the supply is absolutely guaranteed."

For his part, the mayor of Madrid,

José Luis Martínez-Almeida

, pointed out that

Mercamadrid

's activity had not been affected by the strikes.

And

from Mercabarna, the president of the fruit and vegetable wholesalers guild, Jaume Flores, sent the message that "in the coming days there will be no problems of shortages

, since there are plenty of products to cover the whole week."

cipher war

The protest raised now has as an added stumbling block the rejection of the large associations in the sector, in the case of

CETM

(Spanish Confederation of Freight Transport) or

Fenadismer

and the

CCOO

union .

The result of this is the war of figures, where

the organizers claim to represent 85% of the sector through SMEs and the self-employed.

Something that they deny from CETM,

which is the one with the greatest representation in the CNTC, on behalf of more than 31,000 companies that operate 129,000 vehicles.

"It is

absolutely false that we defend the interests of the large operators

and the self-employed are with the platform. No business organization has as many self-employed as the CETM. And we do not say so, the Ministry of Transport says so. We represent 80% of the sector , which is the vast majority of the transport business fabric. 50% of our associates are self-employed and another 30% are SMEs,"

Dulsé Díaz

, its general secretary, told this newspaper.

The CETM does understand that

something must be done while the war in Ukraine lasts

, which has triggered fuel prices.

In this way, if

filling the tank of an international transport truck at the beginning of January cost 2,100 euros, now it is 2,700

and could reach 3,000 euros.

"We have asked the government to meet with them and it will do so with the CNTC, which are the legitimate representatives of the sector. But

this strike makes no sense if it is called indefinitely and with certain objectives, since half of them have already been achieved and the other half are difficult to comply with

in a market economy".

Díaz was referring to the

agreements reached in December

between the

Government and the transport employers

and that "they are frankly good for the sector in a normal market situation."

They contemplate a

revision of the price of fuel and that truck drivers do not also have to do the loading and unloading

.

"But now we have to

find an exceptional solution to a temporary problem

," he concluded.

Among them, by the way, the technicians of the Ministry of Finance,

Gestha

, warned yesterday that

there is "little or no margin" to lower taxes on fuels

, beyond increasing the return of subsidized diesel used in agriculture and livestock.

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