Unions are targeting traditionally busy travel days during Spain’s long May Day ‘puente’ in calling for walkouts by petrol station staff.
Trade unions have called strike action at Spanish petrol stations to coincide with a key May bank holiday weekend.
The walkouts have been time to disrupt the so-called ‘operación salida y retorno‘ when millions of Spaniards take advantage of the long weekend to travel.
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Leaders from the UGT and CCOO unions called the action after a deadlock in negotiations with employers during which, they claim, partial progress had been made but which ultimately failed to materialise.
The unions claim that companies have taken an “unacceptable step backwards” by withdrawing previous proposals and putting forward a financial offer they describe as “regressive”.
The industrial action has been chosen to coincide with a busy May Day bank holiday weekend.
With Friday May 1st being a national holiday across Spain for International Worker’s Day, the action will potentially disrupt the long weekend, known as a puente in Spanish, by targeting travel days at the beginning and end of the weekend.
Walkouts are scheduled for two key days of travel: Thursday 30th April, with a partial strike from 12 p.m. to 4 p.m., and also on Sunday 3rd May, when there will be a 24-hour strike.
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Union bosses are demanding a minimum annual pay rise of 2 percent and a mechanism to guarantee that pay rises are at least in line with CPI plus 0.5 percent.
This is in addition to other demands such as work-life balance, a reduction in working hours and improved allowances.
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