The agricultural and transportation sectors have similarities that will come to light, in the form of protests, in the coming days. Their scope is still unknown. The National Platform for the Defense of Road Freight Transport, a minority organization that has already managed to put the Government in check with a protest in March 2022, has called for an “indefinite national strike” to join the call of Platform 6F of Farmers and Ranchers, another group of local agricultural professionals. The objective of the organizers is that, if their associates validate them, they will begin the suspension of their activity starting next Saturday the 10th.
Two years ago, the Platform managed to paralyze part of the logistics at the national level, blocking strategic transport nodes. Months later, in November 2022, they tried again but failed. Now they are back at it, taking advantage of the rural protests to denounce the “agonizing situation of salaried transporters and drivers.” “We call on civil society to add their support and participation for the future and dignity of all,” the organizers say in a statement.
The organization shows its full collaboration with the farmers' protests in Spain and asks its associates to "progressively paralyze our activity and return home to end the week with the approval and availability of the endorsement in Madrid."
Other carrier organizations are more cautious at this time. Fenadismer, which brings together SMEs and the self-employed, has so far limited itself to asking drivers for some foresight in the face of the farmers' mobilizations that begin this Tuesday and that "will foreseeably cause traffic cuts and make circulation difficult." “All territories will be affected,” they warn them.
The majority Spanish Confederation of Freight Transport (CETM) proclaims, for its part, “respect for the demands” of the agricultural sector. They also demand that the freedom of their carriers be respected "without any attacks occurring" like those that occurred in France "nor the safety of professional drivers being put at risk." The organization estimates the losses in road freight transport due to damage to trucks on the French border at more than 120 million.
“It is evident that, if companies and self-employed workers in the sector are subjected to protests in similar conditions that prevent them from working normally, for many it would mean bankruptcy, therefore, from the CETM we demand that the free circulation of goods be guaranteed” , they argue.
