Spanish Tuna Workers Take To Streets To Demand Rights

Hundreds of workers from the Galician tuna and seafood canning industry in Vilagarcía de Arousa gathered on the streets on Saturday to demand their rights. It includes an increase in wages, a rights-based professional classification system, a reduction in working hours, improvements in workplace health and safety conditions, and concrete action to protect women workers’ rights. Major tuna companies such as Bolton, Jealsa, and Nauterra are headquartered in Galicia. The protest was organized by the trade union Confederación Intersindical Galega (CIG).

The unions CCOO and UGT, which were supposed to take part in the protests, withdrew last week after a mediation meeting with SIMA (Interconfederal Mediation and Arbitration Service) in Madrid to first review the proposed changes to the labor agreement. However, this did not sit well with many workers, who decided to go ahead with the protests on Saturday. They claimed the agreement reached during the mediation was a “backroom deal that does not address the main demands of the workforce,” reported Spanish news sites.