SHIPYARD WORKERS´ PROTESTS CONTINUE UNABATED

Workers took to the streets in Cádiz, Sevilla and Puerto Real again last week to repeat their demands for a solution to the crisis affecting Spain's shipyards in Spain. More than 1,500 men marched on San Telmo Palace, the headquarters of the Junta de Andalucía in Sevilla, to back their demand for Andalucia's President, Manuel Cháves, to get more involved in the negotiations. Sr Cháves agreed to meet their leaders for talks early this week. Spain's state-owned shipyards have been losing money for several years and their economic situation became even more complicated when the European Union decided they had received more than their fair share of EU subsidies and asked for the money back. The government wants to transfer a 51% share of the shipyards to private companies but this would involve a substantial cutback in jobs, which the workers are objecting to. Last week's protests were comparatively peaceful. The workers in Cádiz blocked the access road to the shipyard for only two hours and there were no clashes with police. The protests have been violent in the past, with barricades of burning tyres, roads and railways lines blocked for whole days and stone-throwing episodes with the police. Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero complicated matters a few weeks ago when he promised that his government would make sure no workers lost their jobs. However, the very next day, the government holding company that is conducting the negotiations with the shipyard workers made it clear that the cutback would have to go ahead if the yards were to be saved.