The Valencian productive sectors experienced the general strike this Wednesday with unequal degrees of impact. While the port, with the stevedoring group, and industry (especially the automotive industry) have registered the highest levels of monitoring, commerce and the tourism sector have barely supported the strikes. In the capital, the day began with pickets in the main logistics centers, such as Mercavalencia, and in the depots of the Municipal Transport Company (EMT), where the first police charges occurred when the unionists tried to prevent the start of the activity. At the end of the day there were seven detainees in the entire autonomy for damage or disobedience to the agents. As a culmination of the protest, a massive demonstration toured the center of Valencia as a "wake-up call" to all governments regarding housing, job insecurity and the cost of living.
The war of numbers was also not absent from the event. While the UGT and CCOO unions estimated the level of follow-up in the Valencian Community at around 60% of a "historic" strike for housing and salary improvements in the face of the rising cost of living and highlighted the "massive" support of youth, the Valencian Business Confederation (CEV) lowered it to 2.57%. Its president, Vicente Lafuente, described it as "totally failed" and "absolutely untimely" and "political."
The mobilization began early in the morning with the Valencian ports "practically paralyzed," according to union representatives. Francisco Martínez, head of the CCOO Sea, pointed out that from 7:00 in the morning a picket was deployed around the port of Valencia, where "a very important and majority follow-up" was registered, which has been around 80%. Sources from the Port Authority stated that the call at the site was "low in terms of general impact, although its operational impact has been high due to the type of paralyzed work."
Industrial sector
CCOO stated that more than 70% of the companies with union representation "have practically stopped", although the business organizations spoke of a "little or no" impact on the polygons, which in the case of the Castellón tile the Ascer employers' association placed below 2%. In the case of Ford Almussafes, the production stoppage at the factory was total, although conditioned by the prior inclusion of yesterday's day in the ERTE calendar applied by the American automobile company.
In public transport, the EMT suffered delays and route modifications due to the action of the pickets and the afternoon demonstration. In Metrovalencia, monitoring was 15% of the workforce, according to Ferrocarrils de la Generalitat (FGV). At the airports of Valencia and Alicante, 18 scheduled flights were cancelled, while the strike also caused the suppression of four Cercanías services in the center of Valencia and 20% of the High Speed.
On the opposite side, the tourism and commerce sectors were among those with the lowest incidence of strikes. In the first case, the hotel association Hosbec put the monitoring at 0.46%, which is why it highlighted the "normality" and the absence of incidents during the day. There was also a low incidence of protest in shops and small businesses, while supermarket chains opened relatively normally, except in downtown streets where some pickets circulated and where there were clashes with agents of the National Police.
Public services
The general strike had a "minimal" impact on public services that depend on the Generalitat, according to sources from the Valencian Government, since the "immense majority" of employees went to their jobs and carried out their activity normally. The monitoring data recorded throughout the morning reflected minority participation in all sectors, with percentages of 15.46% among teaching staff (compared to the 54% reported by the majority union Stepv), 4.95% in Health and 9.39% in the Administration of the Generalitat.
Demonstration in the rain
In the afternoon, a "historic" and massive demonstration marched through the streets of the center of Valencia in the rain for housing and decent wages as a "wake-up call" to all governments, present and future: "We have reminded all governments, local, regional, state, past, present and future, that we will not allow any right that we have achieved to be stolen from us," proclaimed the representatives of CCOO and UGT along with representatives of unions such as COS, CGT, CNT and housing movements.
During the strike day march, which "will not be the last," they said, slogans were chanted against precarious work, for decent housing and in favor of social rights. Demonstrations were also held in Alicante and Castellón.
