Twelve o'clock tonight is the time marked in red. The Government is on alert and distribution is mobilized to prevent images of empty shelves from being produced in supermarkets in the coming days. The second indefinite strike called by the Platform for the Defense of the Merchandise Transport Sector has put the sector in charge of providing the population with basic food on guard, which demands that the Executive not allow what happened in March to happen, when the protests blocked distribution centers and even caused the dairy industry to have to interrupt its activity.
What happened seven months ago was a series of errors that led to a shortage of certain foods on store shelves. Milk was one of the products that was scarce. Large supermarkets such as Mercadona, Carrefour, Alcampo or Dia is what they now want to avoid and for this they have transmitted to the Ministry of Transport that the essential thing in the next few hours is to "guarantee security" in the distribution centers. They demand that violent altercations not be repeated and that the security forces and bodies anticipate and guarantee "that whoever wants to work can do so."
The Ministry of the Interior, through the Secretary of State for Security, in coordination with that of Transport, has prepared a special device, sources from the department headed by Fernando Grande-Marlaska report. Agents from different bodies will be deployed in strategic locations and, if necessary, will escort convoys of trucks. Mercamadrid, in the capital, is one of them. Also the Coslada transport center, on the outskirts. In Barcelona, the port is a sensitive infrastructure. This deployment has been designed based on "security forecasts and analyzes to guarantee the free movement of goods and prevent incidents," indicate department sources. Interior will carry out over the next few days "constant follow-up and monitoring to evaluate the situation." Government delegates in several autonomous communities are also mobilized.
The distribution affirms that the action of the Interior is key to prevent the strike of these autonomous carriers from putting the supply at the point of sale at risk. "If there is security, violent acts and public disorder are not allowed, the chain will function normally and supply will be guaranteed throughout the territory, as we have done at critical times in the last three years," say sources in the sector. "There is also a majority of transport and logistics companies and workers who do not want to stop and who demand that they be allowed to work safely." Companies therefore have plans in place to avoid the scenes of seven months ago.
The same distribution sources recall that a supply problem would affect the entire economy and other sectors, such as industry, automobiles, pharmaceuticals, chemicals or exporters, and "the situation is not exactly here to stop the country" .
In the Government they assume internally that in March they made two mistakes that this time they will try to avoid. The first, the delay of the Police and the Civil Guard in acting. The carriers had already blocked several key points. There were more than a dozen detainees and fifty complaints. Interior had to deploy more than 23,000 agents to stop a strike that put the Executive in check. The second mistake, and this is recognized by government sources, was accusing the protesting trucks of sympathizing with the "extreme right," said Raquel Sánchez, and even of "playing the game of Putin," said María Jesús Montero. These are statements that, according to these sources, will not occur on this occasion.
The Platform for the Defense of the Freight Transport Sector denounces that truck drivers continue to work at a loss and that the transport inspection is not acting on these situations. The Ministry, through two general deputy directors, decided to meet with the organization's board of directors last Thursday, despite the fact that they do not have representation in the negotiating body with the Government, to inform them that said inspection will be reinforced in 2023. After the meeting, the convening carriers decided to maintain the indefinite strike.
