Overview
- Pickets are blocking key roads and industrial entrances in Cartagena and Molina de Segura, including access to the Escombreras complex and exits toward the A-30 and La Manga.
- Unions and employers left a meeting at the regional mediation office with no deal, so the indefinite strike continues while talks remain stalled.
- The central dispute is the 'plus industrial', a daily allowance for metalworkers that unions want set at €24 per day and the employers offer at €6 per day.
- Protests have escalated into clashes with police, leaving a Guardia Civil vehicle damaged after it hit barricade material and prompting at least one arrest for public disorder.
- About 35,000 metalworkers are affected, raising the risk of wider logistical and economic disruption for factories, subcontractors and the port if the stoppage persists.