AGREEMENT SPARKS OFF MORE VIOLENCE

After more than three months of negotiations, the state-owned holding company SEPI reached an agreement last Friday with the Comisiones Obreros (Workers' Commissions) and the UGT (Workers' General Union) on the future of IZAR, Spain's leading company in the field of civil and military shipbuilding. In effect, the unions have accepted what Sepi wanted to do originally, that is, separate IZAR's companies into two and sell off the civil shipbuilding yards while holding on to the military shipyards, namely those in Cadiz, San Fernando and Puerto Real in Cadiz province, Cartagena in Murcia, Fene and Ferrol in Galicia. The civil shipyards that will be privatised are located in Sevilla, Manises in Valencia province, Sestao in the Basque Country and Gijon in Asturias. The unions accepted that 4,100 men would be asked to take early retirement. IZAR currently employs just over 11,000 people who have frequently resorted to violence in the past three months because of the loss of jobs that privatisation would entail. Workers at Sestao, one of the civil shipyards, reacted violently to news of the agreement (see photo). But that's just one of Sepi's problems. The company now has to convince the European Commission in Brussels to accept that the agreement will eventually put make Spain's shipyards back on a sound economic basis. The current troubles started when the Commission decided earlier this year that the Spanish yards has received more than their fair share of EU aid and asked for the money back.