This Friday, December 13, is being a difficult day to move around Madrid and it will continue to be until the end of the day, coinciding with the working day and Christmas Friday of dinners and celebrations of many companies.
Be careful, then, because today both Metro de Madrid and the Municipal Transport Company (EMT) are going through a 24-hour strike. But are there more days of strikes? Well, in principle, with today’s strike, only the 23-hour Renfe strike would remain next December 20, coinciding with the Christmas weekend. The stoppages would affect long-distance trains, AVE and Cercanías although more details are unknown.
What is happening in the Madrid Metro?
Metro de Madrid has been affected by the Solidaridad Obrera strikes on December 3 and today, December 13, both lasting 24 hours. The stoppages have coincided with the Climate Summit (COP25), although the .
The stoppages previously announced in the underground and which were called off were those announced by the Madrid Metro Machinists’ Union for December 2, 3, 4, 5, 10, 11, 12 and 13. Now the striker is Solidaridad Obrera. Your reasons? “That is why we call for a 24-hour strike on December 3 and 13, coinciding with the EMT.”
The previous strikes that were called and called off came from the Metro Drivers’ Union, which complains about the continuous crowds, lack of drivers, insufficient family reconciliation and lack of safety on trains and stations. In addition, they had been requesting an air quality study for three years with the windows lowered in the cab of the driver who did not arrive and which Metro de Madrid has finally agreed to carry out. Reason why the stoppages were definitively called off.
What does the EMT ask for?
The EMT buses added two more days of strikes to the strikes they called for November 21, 22, 25, 27 and 29 in addition to December 3 (24-hour strike and demonstration) two weeks ago they added strikes for the December 10 (24-hour strike), for December 11 (from 00:00 to 01:00, from 05:30 to 07:30 and from 17:30 to 19:30) and for this December 13 (24 hours).
They are asking for more staff to be hired, for services not to be privatized and, according to the strike committee in a statement, the reason for continuing the strikes is that “nobody in charge of the City Council or the management of the company has sat down to talk to the workers and they have denied all the requests for a meeting” that have been requested.
Renfe and Adif: stoppages on December 5 and 20
The CGT union called on Renfe workers to support partial strikes in the company on December 5 (from 12:00 p.m. to 04:00 a.m., from 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. and from 8:00 p.m. to 12:00 p.m.) and a 23-hour strike day on December 20, thus coinciding with the ‘exit operation’ of the Constitution holiday bridge (December 6) and the Inmaculada (December 9), and with that of the weekend of Christmas. The stoppages would affect long-distance trains, AVE and Cercanías although more details are unknown.
Both calls have also been made among the workers of Adif, the company that owns and manages the railway network. These stoppages and strikes follow those that this same union carried out in the sector several days in the past months of August and September, which also coincided with key dates for the movement of travelers for the summer holidays.
CGT protests the policy of “privatization and outsourcing” that it considers is being carried out in the railway sector, and the lack of personnel presented by both Renfe and Adif for access to retirement for their aging staff. “We cannot sit still in Renfe and Adif when the future they seek is to sell to the railway workers and the company at a bargain price, when they continue to privatize all the productive sectors and when their respective employment plans do not include the real productive needs,” he said. The union complains.
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