Two major Spanish unions, CCOO and UGT, have announced plans to mobilize a nationwide strike across the road transport sector in October. The action aims to push companies to apply the reduction coefficients and to agree to advance early retirement for workers in the trade. These demands would raise costs for employers and could worsen the already tight pool of skilled professionals in the sector, a challenge business leaders have repeatedly warned about.
At this moment, negotiations between the unions and employers have yielded no breakthrough. CCOO and UGT also criticize the government for not resolving their joint request to lower the retirement age for this profession. “After thirteen years the file has not moved and remains shelved,” the unions said in a joint statement. They are on the cusp of a broader reform of the general mechanism for partial retirement, a reform that would adjust the sector’s bargaining positions and potentially alter the scope of what workers in road transport can claim.
Meanwhile, thousands of senior professional drivers are reportedly unable to stay behind the wheel, enduring demanding and hazardous work while contending with health risks that shorten life expectancy and threaten road safety for everyone. The unions have underscored the physical toll of long hours and heavy loads, arguing that these conditions justify recognizing the occupation as a physically strenuous job within special Social Security provisions.
Both unions, which dominate a highly fragmented sector with a large share of self-employed drivers, have announced a strike set for the second half of October but have not yet fixed an exact starting date. The timing leaves companies and logistics chains in a precarious position as they plan responses to potential disruptions in service and delivery windows.
Over recent years, road transport protests have recurred, though previously led mainly by small business owners and independent operators. In March 2022, protests placed pressure on supply chains for several industries for about three weeks, with a later, more limited follow-up. Even then, one central aim of the organizers remained the early retirement of drivers, a concession they argued would reflect the arduous nature of the work and align with the social security framework that recognizes an occupation as particularly demanding.
As negotiations continue, observers and participants alike expect that any settlement will need to balance the fiscal realities facing transport firms with the unions’ demands for earlier retirement and compensation terms. The stakes extend beyond the unions and their members; a sustained disruption in road transport logistics can ripple through manufacturing, retail, and consumer services, affecting schedules, costs, and reliability for end users. The coming weeks will be crucial for the sector as stakeholders weigh potential mitigation strategies and the government weighs policy adjustments that could redefine retirement benefits for high-intensity driving careers. [Citation: Unions’ joint statement and public announcements]