Spanish dockworkers unions accept wage cuts and job losses
Less than one week after the Spanish government saw its decree attacking the working conditions of the country’s 6,140 dockworkers resoundingly defeated in parliament, the unions and employers are pressing ahead with wage cuts and job losses.
The decree, which would have opened the door to mass redundancies, wage cuts of up to 60 percent, the use of low-paid contract agency workers, and the destruction of safety conditions was defeated by 175 votes to 142 with 33 abstentions.
Its failure was the result of divisions within the ruling class over how best to implement attacks on the working class.
The minority Popular Party (PP)-led government preferred to unilaterally implement a reform without any previous agreements with the unions, ANESCO and the opposition parties. It claimed it was urgently required to abide by a two-year-old resolution of the EU Court of Justice rule demanding Spain liberalise the dockworkers sector or face sanctions.
Read more: https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2017/03/25/dock-m25.html