The employers associations representing large retailers, including leading supermarket chains, ANGED and ASEDAS, want the state security forces - Guardia Civil, National Police - "to stop acts of vandalism and coercion" that are preventing companies from being able to exercise their right to work. The associations insist that "this is not the time to paralyse the country but to work together, through dialogue and cooperation, in the search for solutions".
The retailers in Mallorca and the Balearics emphasise that the transport of goods, perishable and non-perishable, must be facilitated, or else the financial viability of businesses will be at stake.
The dispute needs to be "settled as soon as possible so that it does not fester any longer", blockades of industrial estates in major cities on the mainland having, for example, caused the supply of essential chemical products to be cut.
CLIQIB is the Balearics Chemical Cluster. It issued a statement on Thursday saying that protest action on the mainland has caused roadblocks and hindered the arrival of trucks. There is reference to "attacks on and sabotage" of vehicles carrying dangerous goods. These are products "essential for health and hygiene services".
The blockade of Barcelona and Valencia ports is affecting the shipping companies. Trasmed said on Thursday that the traffic of goods has slowed and that the holds of its ships are not being filled. The company adds that this will result in a logjam of goods in the ports once the current situation normalises. Trasmed and Baleària stress that they will not be cutting or stopping services due to the increase in fuel prices, pointing out that they provide "services in the general interest", especially for the island region.
With the Balearic Freight Transport Association having announced a strike of hauliers from 28 March and the Balearic government looking at financial aid in order to prevent this, another association - ASTAM - has said that it will not support the strike.
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I think not only the retailers are asking for Police intervention. Ask any Mallorcan citizen and they will say the same. How can the public be held at ransom, for something that is out of anyones control, including the government? And yes, of course they can lower taxes on fuel, but that money is not the governments money, but OUR money, as we, the public have to foot this bill in the end. People always think that the government has it´s own money: all they do is spend ours.