07:27
Few cars have entered El Escobar so far this morning. The most frequent vehicles are the trucks that work in the reconstruction works of the factory that burned down last summer.
07:26
From a quarter to seven the strikers have been summoned to Finca La Adelantada, on the Badajoz-Olivenza highway.
07:21
Laura Méndez, from the UGT Extremadura trade union action secretariat:
«We have sufficient reasons to mobilize and make visible what the employers are causing with the blocking of a collective bargaining agreement that we have been dragging for three years»
“If we don’t sit down to negotiate an agreement in conditions, we will continue with the indefinite strike if necessary until the fruit has to stay on the trees”
07:19
Patricia, worker
“They want to cut us down and remove the 15-minute break. It’s abusive what they’re doing to us, after we’ve been hot and they pay us shit, I think we’ll at least have to eat.
Unity is strength, let’s see if we are capable of achieving it»
07:15
07:09
Union representatives say that of the two buses that leave daily from Calamonte to Gévora, where El Escobar has its temporary headquarters this year, only one has left and with 30 workers on it.
07:02
06:51
06:44
06:42
06:40
Later, Encarna Chacón, general secretary of the CC OO of Extremadura, will join the protest.
06:37
Among those present at the information picket in Mérida is Patrocinio Sánchez, general secretary of UGT Extremadura
06:32
Normally the working day of the fruit collection begins around 7 in the morning. Shortly before that time, the greatest presence of people will be noticed next to El Escobar.
06:28
06:24
06:24
06:23
A control of the company has been established to prevent trade unionists and workers who are on strike from accessing the interior of the facilities.
06:21
06:20
We are at the entrance of the facilities and the farm of El Escobar, of the company Grupo Catalá, in Mérida. One of the key points of the fruit sector in Extremadura
06:18
Hello. It is 6:17 in the morning and TODAY the informative follow-up of the call for a strike in the field begins.
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Eddie is an Australian news reporter with over 9 years in the industry and has published on Forbes and tech crunch.