Spain: Thousands strike to defend shipyards

Around 45,000 people demonstrated in the northwest port of 
Ferrol, demanding government action to save their local shipyards 
from bankruptcy and prevent private finance being put into the 
public sector shipbuilder Izar.

Talks a few days later produced an agreed framework for fresh 
negotiations on how to rescue the Izar, while further strikes 
were called.

At the heart of the sector's problems are EU demands that Izar 
repay 300 million euros (US$368.9 million) in aid which Brussels 
says breached EU competition rules. The sector is also up against 
fierce competition from Asia.

The conflict between the employers and the unions is the first 
major test of industrial relations for Spain's Socialist Prime 
Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, elected in March.

The Prime Minister has promised to save the yards and the jobs of 
those who work there — but his Socialist Party backs the 
restructuring plan.

That support for the revamp has sparked fury in the industry 
which shed 30,000 jobs after being subjected to three 
restructuring plans in the 1980s.

Over recent weeks there have been actions at other yards in the 
north and south of the country with police baton-charging 
demonstrators.

In the southern city of Cadiz, where barricades were set alight 
and traffic disrupted, the protest was against plans by SEPI, the 
Spanish government industrial holding company that owns the 
docks, to separate naval dockyard activities from the civil 
shipyards which are to be partially privatised.