Malaga transport workers announce they will join national lorry drivers’ strike

Transport workers in Malaga province have announced that they will be joining the planned national strike by lorry drivers.

Marina Ramirez, the Malaga delegate for the Platform in Defence of Transport, announced this afternoon, Monday, November 7, that its members in Malaga province will join the planned national transport strike. She confirmed this action to laopiniondemalag.es.

The group of self-employed and small national transport companies that called the industrial action across the country last March, has announced a new indefinite stoppage from midnight on Sunday, November 13.

‘Non-compliance’ by customers of the carriers with the law that prohibits working at a loss in the sector has been blamed for the latest strikes. The Platform accused the Ministry of Transport of disavowing the Guardia Civil in its task of controlling these irregularities. 

“There is a Law of the Transport Chain, but the reality is that there is no way to apply it because the Ministry has told the Guardia Civil that they do not need to be involved in the control, but rather the transport inspectors that they appoint”, said Marina Ramirez. She continued: “The consequence is that, at the moment, no one is doing it”.

According to the Platform, this ensures that the lack of effective control over bills of lading is being used by shippers to impose rates that force carriers, on many occasions, to work ‘at a loss’. As an example, she pointed out that a fare between Cordoba and Valencia is being paid at €400 when just the price of petrol alone needed to make the journey, at current prices, exceeds €500.