Conflicts in public and private shipyards

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Unrest continued in Spanish shipyards in early 2000, as restructuring plans were announced. Workers at privately-owned shipyards in Gijón were involved in violent mobilisations, while negotiations began between the government and the trade unions on the future of the public shipyards.

After the workforce mobilisations of November 1999 (ES9912268F), in late December an agreement was reached between trade unions and the government on the transfer of some shipyards belonging to Astilleros Españoles SA (AESA), the holding company for public civil shipyards, to the State Company for Industrial Participation (Sociedad Estatal de Participaciones Industriales, SEPI), in order to avoid their bankruptcy. This was a financial move aimed at providing a temporary solution to the crisis situation, while the government drew up a viability plan for the public shipyards, which was to be agreed with the trade unions.

In mid-February 2000, after two meetings at which the government made no specific proposals, SEPI presented the unions with a plan. It proposed the dismantling of AESA, which cannot survive without grants. In its place, it proposed the integration of all the public civil shipyards into the Bazán public military shipyard. This integration was presented as a temporary situation that would allow the shipyards to be rationalised and later privatised. Only the Astano and Cádiz shipyards would remain in public hands because of their complementary activities and geographical location in relation to Bazán. SEPI considers that this integration would permit "synergies" that would provide savings, allowing the optimisation of purchases, technology transfer, greater specialisation and a better administration of the portfolio of orders. SEPI has also undertaken to finance a programme to develop new products and to foster technological agreements with national and international companies.

The CC.OO and UGT trade unions accept the takeover by Bazán but have different views of the plan. The representatives of CC.OO are critical: they consider that this is not an industrial plan but a reorganisation of activities aimed at a future privatisation. In particular they state that it could be detrimental for Bazán that no solution has been put forward to improve market share, that subsides and incentives have not been defined, and that the plan may lead to the reduction of industrial capacity. They also disagree with the government's refusal to consider the viability of the shipyards as a public company. CC.OO therefore demands a more thorough drafting of the plan before the merger and a commitment to non-privatisation. The representatives of UGT consider the plan to be "innovative", and would agree to the immediate merger with a commitment to enter into thorough negotiations at a later stage.

November did not mark the end of the shipyard workers' mobilisations. The workers at most shipyards, both public and private, have continued with weekly demonstrations in the municipalities in which they work. They demand greater effectiveness in the administration (increasing the workload and seeking buyers) in order to put an end to the redundancies and avoid further job losses, in addition to political measures in the form of public subsidies. February 2000 was characterised by violent mobilisations in Gijón by the workers of the Nagisa private shipyard, who were later joined by the workers of the Juliana public shipyard.

At the beginning of February, the management of Nagisa informed the workers of financial problems, the prospect of redundancies due to the lack of new work and the dismissal of 231 workers on temporary contracts. These dismissals were said to contravene a pact between the trade unions and the company that involved recruiting workers instead of subcontracting. The pact was due to remain in force until 2003 and had maintained peace in the company since 1996. At the same time, the possibility of the Juliana yard being bought by Nagisa was made public. In response to the imminent dismissal of 91 people, the workers went on strike and on the second day they occupied the factory. For 33 hours there were violent confrontations with the riot police, involving barricades and many injuries. The tensest moment was when the workers of the Juliana public shipyard tried to meet the workers of the private shipyard and the police prevented them from doing so. The response of the management of Nagisa was a two-week lock-out. The workers have threatened to take over the management of the company if there is no progress with the negotiations. The first vice-president of the regional government and the head of the electoral list of the People's Party (Partido Popular, PP) for Asturias in the general election, Álvarez Cascos, is acting as a mediator in this dispute.