Spain: Dozens of casualties after police attack striking shipbuilding work

[Aidoneus]

Spain: Dozens of casualties after police attack striking shipbuilding workers
By Vicky Short
27 February 2004

Nearly 60 people were injured on February 17 when Spanish riot police clashed with hundreds of striking shipbuilding workers outside several shipyards belonging to the state-owned Izar.

According to eyewitnesses, 38 workers were hurt in Seville, with three hospitalised, after riot police used tear gas and rubber bullets to break up a protest of about 300. Striking workers used rocks, nails and tyres to defend themselves and a number of vehicles were severely damaged. Workers set up roadblocks in order to prevent the police from entering the industrial facility again. Slingshots were also used when police used force to disperse the protest. The morning before railway lines were blocked to prevent the movement of materials.

The main violence took place when police entered the yard. Local government officials put the total number of police injured at around 22. Another 10 police had been injured at another dockyard in Puerto Real in the southern province of Cadiz, they said.

Protests have also broken out at dockyards in the Basque region of Northern Spain and at Ferrol in the northwest region of Galicia. Subcontractors working at the ports also joined striking Izar employees. In the northwest city of La Coruna, many thousands of Izar workers marched peacefully through the streets.

Sporadic clashes between shipyard workers and police are continuing as well as demonstrations at the 11 shipbuilding concerns owned by Izar. Workers at La Naval shipyard in Sestao (Vizcaya) in the Basque country cut railway traffic between Santurtzi and Barakaldo and stopped traffic on the road between Bilbao and Santurtzi where it passes the shipyard installations. They later set fire to the barricades, creating a thick cloud of black smoke all over the area. They set up further barricades in the internal road leading up to the shipyard works. The Basque police (Ertzaintza) moved in once again, charging against the workers using truncheons and shields.

Nearly 14,000 shipyard workers have accused Izar of refusing to honour agreements that promised work after the recent merger of military and civilian dockyards.

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http://www.wsws.org/articles/2004/feb2004/spai-f27.shtml