This week’s Spanish port strikes were set to go ahead this week (Monday, Wednesday and Friday on odd hours only). Britannia P&I reported that further strikes were planned as follows:
• from June 26th at 08:00 to June 28th at 08:00 (odd hours only);
• from June 29th at 08:00 to July 1st at 08:00 (odd hours only);
• from July 3rd at 08:00 up July 5th 2017 at 08:00 (odd hours only);
• from July 6th at 08:00 up to July 8th at 08:00 (odd hours only).
Britannia said it appeared that the situation was varying from port to port. While in some ports stevedores were reported to be working normally on the days and hours when there were no strikes, in other places stevedores were taking holidays in addition to the strike days, thus increasing the disruption, especially over the weekends. The level of disruption was also depending on the various terminals and the individual relationships between the unions and the management. “There is still no general agreement between the ports and the stevedore unions and the situation has not been helped by the announcement that some container terminals will be bought by foreign companies and so services will be privatised in those areas”, said Britannia.