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Port de Barcelona pay protest blocks cruise ship access
Thousands of cruise passengers had to walk across the terminal after traffic was cut off during a protest by port staff. The committee is demanding the reinstatement of pay reviews and is not ruling out strikes.
The committee brought together around 200 people and warns that it could call strikes.
Thousands of tourists had to walk through the cruise terminal and cross the bridge into the city during a protest that blocked traffic at the Port de Barcelona. The demonstration on Tuesday, 28 November gathered around 200 people.
The blockade affected access to the terminal.
The workers marched from the Jaume I tower to the Europa bridge, which leads to the Moll de Ponent. The slow march began at 08:30 and lasted until nearly 12:00.
At the entrance, they lit a bonfire and burned some objects along with fallen branches. The passage was blocked for buses and taxis, as well as coaches. Riot police were present and that section of the ronda Litoral was gridlocked for hours. Afterwards, the gathering moved to the administration building of the Autoritat Portuària.
The committee demands the agreed pay rises.
The workforce of the Autoritat Portuària de Barcelona is around 450 people. According to Jordi Giner, general secretary of the UGT union section at the institution, management blocked the 0.5% pay review approved by law for the year of the protest. It also reduced the planned increase for 2027 from 4.5% to 2.25%.
The committee is demanding that the agreed reviews be reinstated and maintains that workers should not bear the cost of a budget imbalance in the wage bill, which it puts at 1.8 million euros. In the employment coverage for Catalunya, this employment balance is also included, focusing on another aspect of the labour market.
Strike action remains on the table.
UGT and CCOO are represented on the committee, as is the Coordinadora de Autoridades Portuarias. The unions warned that they would continue with protests if the pay freeze and cuts to increases continued; they also did not rule out strikes involving the entire port community.
Giner added that there is discontent over working hours compensation: the workforce worked 37.5 hours during that year, although it should have been reduced to 35, and management decided to compensate that time with only an hour and a half in the annual hours balance.