Tapia affirms that the right of carriers to strike is just as legitimate as the right to work

The councilor Arantxa Tapia has assured that she has nothing to reproach the carriers on strike as a result of the increase in transport costs and the “exorbitant” cost of fuel prices, but he stressed that “The decision to stop is just as legitimate as the decision to work”and therefore, “the two rights must coexist, the right to strike and the right to work”, he pointed out.

The Minister for Economic Development, Sustainability and the Environment of the Basque Government participated this Thursday in Vitoria-Gasteiz in the opening of the Intermodal Logistics forum, Transmodal, with the presence of the president of the Álava Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Services, Gregorio Red; the president of the Bilbao Port Authority, Ricardo Barkala; and the general deputy of Álava, Ramiro González.

The counselor has underlined in this forum the problems in the supply chains of the Basque Autonomous Community (CAV) as a result of the war in Ukraine and which also affects Basque industry. “An industry that was also already enduring a complex situation as a result of covid-19,” he added.

Tapia explained that the Euskadi production system supports different problems and that “the situation may worsen as a result of the transport stoppage. “The situation is getting worse and one more reason has come to worry our productive fabric, from the food chain to the electro-intensive industry,” he added.

He also pointed out that the logistics chain in the Basque Country is not as “strong as we thought, it is suffering, and as a consequence, our industry is also suffering”. Thus, “some companies are being forced to stop in some cases due to lack of supplies”, he stated.

Consequently, the counselor has underlined the need to have a nearby production chain, as well as that of guaranteeing some critical supplies, “links that cannot remain in the hands of distant countries, because they create difficulties for us and cause our industry to be affected.” In this sense, he has assured that “today, in this war crisis after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, we are still experiencing these difficulties with greater intensity”.

Regarding the cost of energy, Tapia recalled that we live in a situation of energy emergency prior to the covid-19 crisis and now it is time to make a strong commitment to energy efficiency and renewable energies. “We have to reduce energy dependence,” he said, and “we have to provide all the energy, wind, photovoltaic, biomass, thermal, waves, that we can generate so as not to be so dependent.”

In this sense, he has assured that everything that appears cannot be “torpedoed”, because “we must be aware that we do depend on others for energy, but we must be more energetically sovereign as recommended by Europe”.