Police clash with Spanish shipyard workers, 23 hurt
17 September 2004 |
Anti-riot police Friday clashed with workers from the state-owned Spanish shipbuilding group Izar demonstrating against a restructuring plan, leaving 23 people slightly injured, witnesses in the southern city of Seville said.
The scuffles broke out as protestors prepared to block traffic on a bridge. The demonstrators later moved to an access road leading to the city's port and raised barricades using burning tires.
Union sources said around 20 shipyard workers were slightly hurt, while local officials said three policemen had been injured.
Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero called for workers to protest peacefully. He said they had the right to get their claims across but not to provoke incidents "which could have consequences."
Unions at Izar, which employs 10,700 people on 10 sites around the country, have announced plans to stop work on September 21, 28 and 30 following the breakdown of talks with the company's owners, the state holding company SEPI.
"The desire of management is to reach an agreement and I have full confidence in an agreement, because we will implement a plan negotiated with them (the unions) to save the industrial activity" of Izar, Zapatero said.
Izar workers blocked traffic in several streets in the northern city of Gijon, though the police did not intervene.
Incidents of this kind have become a regular occurrence since the company announced the restructuring scheme on September 7.
The plan envisages separating the lucrative military naval construction sector from the civilian shipyards, which would be partly privatised.
Izar has been in crisis since European Union authorities demanded in May that it repay 300 million euros (362 million dollars) of EU aid that Brussels regards as having breached competition rules.
The demand compounds the company's existing difficulties resulting from competition from Asian shipyards.
Text and Picture Copyright © 2004 AFP. All other copyright © 2004 EUbusiness Ltd. All rights reserved. This material is intended solely for personal use. Any other reproduction, publication or redistribution of this material without the written agreement of the copyright owner is strictly forbidden and any breach of copyright will be considered actionable.