Staff are keeping up the protests because, according to the workers, management has made no progress with the Ministry of Finance in avoiding the cuts. It is the second protest in this dispute, after the one on 22 July, when more than 200 workers gathered outside the World Trade Center, also coinciding with the board meeting.
The dispute stems from a report by Spain's General State Comptroller (IGAE), which found a "deviation" between the authorised wage bill and the amounts actually paid under certain pay items. The Port attributes it to a "technical mismatch accumulated over time", linked to historically agreed pay items, and argues that it is obliged to correct it.
To do so, the Port proposes allocating part of the pay rises that the public sector may approve to correcting the deviation, so that salaries would keep rising, but by less. Workers' representatives, however, put the cut at 8% in July and said it would affect nearly 400 employees.
Staff argue that there are other ways to correct the deviation without harming the workers, and are asking the Port not to rush or accept the IGAE report as valid. They are also calling on the Ministry of Transport, which oversees Puertos del Estado, for blocking the collective agreement, and on the Ministry of Finance, which they accuse of not funding it.
According to the CCOO union, a workers' assembly held on 14 July and attended by more than 350 people unanimously agreed a calendar of protests. Back then, the works council chair, Soraya Díaz, warned that the protests would intensify:
“"From today onwards we will block whatever it takes, we will do whatever it takes so that the Port Authority does not cut workers' pay"
