MADRID — The EU-mandated liberalization of Spain's port services has turned into a high-voltage political and labor conflict — disrupting the country’s logistics, threatening to paralyze ports and hurt export sectors such as autos and machinery.

Spain’s around 6,000, heavily unionized stevedores have called a strike for four alternate days starting Friday 17 March in response to a liberalizing decree of the sector approved by Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy’s conservative cabinet on February 24.

While the reform still has to be ratified by the Spanish parliament to come into force — and it’s not clear that it can be any time soon — cargo and loading companies report that stevedores have begun to show their dissatisfaction with the situation by slashing their performance.

Danish transport conglomerate Maersk is already seeing a drop in productivity in Spanish ports "and the situation is expected to continue," it said in a press release.

Spain's exports grew by 1.7 percent last year to €254 billion and have been one of the main mechanisms through which the country has pulled itself out of its long-running economic crisis. The two main exporting sectors are industrial machinery (20.3 percent) and cars (17.7 percent).

Enrique Verdeguer, an expert in logistics for ESADE business school, said about 60 percent of the country’s trade in goods goes through its ports, most of it through those in Algeciras, Valencia, Barcelona and Las Palmas.

Verdeguer added that some firms were already diverting ships and warned that the strike could have an even more negative effect, especially taking into account aggressive competition from the port of Tanger in Morocco.

Brussels steps in

EU Commissioner for Transport Violeta Bulc traveled to Madrid this week to address the issue.

“The Commission fully supports the royal decree,” she told lawmakers on Tuesday, urging them to validate the reform by March 24. If that doesn't happen, she threatened to impose further sanctions on top of the €23 million in fines levied against Spain for failing to comply with a verdict of the European Court of Justice.

The court condemned Spain in 2014, saying the country’s regulation of dock services — which basically forced companies to join a consortium of firms and hire workers from a unionized pool — violated the freedom of establishment protected by EU treaties. The tribunal required the country to change its laws and open the sector to competition.

The reform eliminates the requirement for loading companies to join a port consortium. It also phases out the monopoly of unionized workers to provide those services over four years, allowing companies to hire freely.

The minister for public works, Íñigo de la Serna, wants company associations and labor unions to reach an agreement to guarantee stevedores’ jobs and meet their other demands. However, he also said such measures couldn’t be included in the legal reform, blaming the EU. “We have gone as far as the Commission allows us to favor workers,” he told reporters after the cabinet passed the decree.

“We won’t accept that these 6,000 workers are fired and replaced with new workers on more precarious conditions” — César Ramos

The reform is currently stuck in parliament. Rajoy’s Popular Party lacks a majority and the main opposition Socialists have signaled they won’t accept the new law unless the government can work out a solution with the approval of dock workers.

“We won’t accept that these 6,000 workers are fired and replaced with new workers on more precarious conditions,” said César Ramos, a Socialist MP and speaker in parliament's public works commission, adding there was leeway to protect the stevedores while respecting EU law.

Verdeguer of ESADE said most EU countries have some protections for dock workers.

The government has until March 24 to get parliamentary approval and has already postponed the vote, which was scheduled for this Thursday, sensing defeat in the chamber.

Striking a deal

The stevedores’ unions reject the decree and demand the government step back and negotiate with them and the employers’ associations so that the three parties can agree on a new law that bulletproofs their jobs and wages — which are far above the Spanish average.

They also demand higher requirements of education and experience for future dock workers that effectively protect current workers from competition and also gives them a say on who can work on the ports. The current regulation essentially gives them that power, leading to accusations of nepotism and male chauvinism.

Kiko Alamar, a representative from Valencia’s port stevedores, demanded the decree be changed. He said it provides incentives for companies to fire current workers, even subsidizing severance payments with public money.

However, Alamar also said the strike wasn’t necessarily going to take place and advocated for all parties to start negotiating again. The strike had been scheduled to start on Monday 6 and then cancelled twice.

On Wednesday, labor unions and the industry association, Anesco, were expected to meet to continue negotiations, while De la Serna told lawmakers the government is ready to provide economic incentives for companies and unions to reach an agreement that guarantees current jobs.