The refinery workers of Tarragona are called to a 24-hour strike on Wednesday, May 27, as part of a state-wide call that will affect all refining centers in Spain. In Camp de Tarragona, the stoppage includes the Repsol plants in the northern industrial estate and Asesa in the southern industrial estate.
The protest is based on a paradox that the unions place at the center of the conflict. They demand to be able to access retirement before the ordinary age without penalty in an activity they consider risky, while maintaining that today there are employees who continue to perform physically demanding tasks at 66 and a half years old.
The call has the support of the Workers' Union, union sections of UGT, and the works councils of each center. The main demand is the inclusion of the sector in the retirement age reduction coefficient to anticipate access to the pension.
Unions place early retirement at the center of the May 27 stoppage
Toni Carmona, national secretary of Union Action for STR, frames the conflict within this demand. In his words, "our main demand focuses on including us within the retirement age reduction coefficient."
"It cannot be that a person at 66 and a half years old goes up to control towers. This is dangerous for the workers and also for the population" - Toni Carmona, national secretary of Union Action for STR
Carmona adds that the proposal to incorporate the group into this retirement age reduction was approved in the General Courts without any votes against it. He also states that they have political support to move forward with this measure.
Jordi Margalef, president of the Repsol Fuels Tarragona works council, links the claim to the accumulated wear and tear on the workforces and to occupational health in refining. The stoppage, he maintains, is not limited to an improvement of conditions, but to the recognition of this daily burden in a risky industrial environment.
Repsol and Asesa will operate with minimum services of 15% and 10%
During the strike day, the Tarragona facilities will maintain limited activity. The minimum services provided are 15% at the Repsol refinery and 10% at the Asesa plant, although both figures are still pending final agreement.
Negotiation with employers appears as the main point of blockage. Carmona assures that to process the inclusion in the reduction coefficient they need the participation of the Spanish Fuel Industry Association, but maintains that the business side is not facilitating that step.
In that same framework, the union leader explains that the employer's mediator conveyed that he would study the request, although the social side demands an immediate response. Margalef maintains that there is still room for an agreement if the employers abandon their position and sit down to negotiate.
The labor conflict adds rejection of the reorganization proposed by Repsol
Wednesday's strike is not limited to early retirement. Unions also reject the business reorganization proposed by Repsol, understanding that this change would imply a reduction in jobs at the facilities.
The call, therefore, unites two fronts in the plants of the northern and southern industrial estates of Tarragona. On the one hand, the demand to recognize refining as a risky profession and, on the other, the opposition to an internal reorganization that the union sections and committees consider detrimental to employment.
The organizers do not rule out further strikes if employers do not open negotiations, while for Wednesday, May 27, minimum services of 15% at Repsol and 10% at Asesa are already planned, still pending final agreement.