Spanish police and strikers clash, 15 injured

17 Feb 2004 15:10:46 GMT

MADRID, Feb 17 (Reuters) - Spanish police and strikers from state-owned shipbuilder Izar clashed in the southern city of Seville on Tuesday, leaving 12 policemen and three protesters injured, the government's Seville office said.

Hundreds of masked workers striking for a pay rise barricaded themselves in an Izar plant and hurled rocks and home-made rockets at police in riot gear outside who eventually stormed the plant, television footage showed.

Another group of Izar workers set fire to a van to block a road near Seville, while other strikers from the firm blocked a main road and a bridge close to Cadiz, another southern city, officials in both cities said.

In the northwestern city of La Coruna, thousands of Izar workers marched through the streets in a peaceful protest.

The increasingly violent dispute has been going on for more than a month and stems from a breakdown in negotiations over a new collective work contract for Izar employees.

Last week, police fired rubber bullets and teargas to disperse thousands of striking shipbuilding workers near Cadiz who had hurled stones and blocked a bridge with burning tyres.

Izar says the workers want a 6.8 percent pay rise which the firm is not in a position to grant.

A spokesman for Izar said on Tuesday a meeting was taking place between firm and union representatives to try and break the deadlock.

Izar, which builds both civil and military vessels, is Spain's only major shipbuilder. It delivered 11 ships last year, reducing its losses to 30 million euros ($38 million) from 120 million euros in 2002.

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60 hurt in Spanish dock clashes
The Australian
From correspondents in Seville
February 18, 2004

SOME 60 people were hurt on Tuesday in two violent clashes between dockyard workers and police in the southern Spanish city of Seville and at nearby Cadiz, as workers protested at near empty order books, local government and union officials said.

The incidents occurred at dockyards owned by the state-run Izar group, whose drop in orders the company blames variously on Asian competition, the soaring euro rate and workers' demands for higher pay.

According to Union spokesman Luis Espada, 38 workers were hurt in Seville, with three hospitalised after police in riot gear used tear gas and rubber bullets to break up the protest. Espada said two were hit in the eye and another in the testicles.

Local government officials said a dozen policemen were also injured and added another 10 policemen had been slightly hurt at another dockyard in Puerto Real, in the adjacent southern province de Cadiz.

The incidents followed hot on the heels of protests last week at dockyards in the Basque region of northern Spain and at Ferrol in the far northwestern region of Galicia.

The Izar firm has suffered from poor new orders in recent months, prompting several waves of unrest.

Workers say Izar has failed to respect agreements to produce contracts following a recent merger of military and civilian dockyards.

Union leaders said in a statement Tuesday afternoon they were calling on their members' employers to promise "not to close a single site."

Ignacio Ruiz-Jarabo, chairman of Spain's State Society of Industrial Participation (SEPI), which owns Izar, blamed "unfair Asian competition and the euro-dollar exchange rate" for the company's problems with the tumbling dollar and soaring euro combining to hit competitivity.

However, a spokesman for Izar last week pinned the much of the blame for the tension on work-force demands for an inflation-busting 6.8 percent pay rise.

An Izar spokesman in Madrid said the firm, which employs some 11,000 workers, had received no orders for merchant ships in 2003 but that existing military orders should provide sufficient work at some of the sites through to 2010.

Photos from the various clashes:
february 17:
victoria.indymedia.org/news/2004/02/21971.php

February 10:
victoria.indymedia.org/news/2004/02/21531.php

February 5:
victoria.indymedia.org/news/2004/02/21306.php

February 3:
victoria.indymedia.org/news/2004/02/21209.php

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