Gibraltar juts downward from the Spanish coastline like a dagger into the Mediterranean. Its tip points south towards the Moroccan coast; its western edge hugs the curve of the Bay of Gibraltar.
A narrow neck of land known as “the frontier” (la frontera in Spanish) connects this 2.3-square-mile, water-bounded territory to its neighbour. The movement of goods and people across the frontier has long been fractious and politically vulnerable, most troublingly exemplified by General Franco’s closure of the border from 1969-85.
Once demarcated by no more than a sentinel’s outpost, the border today is gated and tightly controlled. Gibraltar sits outside the Schengen area, and frustrations at the frontier have risen afresh as more stringent inspections, introduced by Spanish officials last August, have on occasion unexpectedly resulted in queues of up to seven hours for vehicles and two hours for pedestrians.
The Spanish government cites the curtailing of tobacco smuggling (cigarettes are roughly 40 per cent cheaper in Gibraltar) as the reason behind increased checks and waiting times. While the controls have been deemed intense but lawful by inspectors from the European Commission, a bold voice has emerged to make a concerted call and lobby against the queues’ impact, not only on Gibraltarians and tourists, but also on the local Spanish economy.
This voice calls itself the Cross-Frontier Group (CFG). The CFG is a collective of eight business and trade unions – five Gibraltarian and three Spanish – speaking on behalf of the large (primarily Spanish) migratory workforce of the hinterland, thousands of whom are employed in Gibraltar and face daily passage across the frontier. The group says the stagnation of movement has measurably had an impact on trade and tourism on both sides of the border. On 7 January 2014, the eight groups signed a declaration that summed up the significance: “The current situation at the border is a severe impediment to the normal development of the social and economic relations which [the CFG] aspires to. Therefore we have made the normalisation of cross-border transit our first priority.”
Gibraltar is a territory of transience. Its tiny local population of 30,000 is swelled annually by a stream of temporary visitors – Over 11 million arrived by land, air and sea in 2012. Included in these figures are the Spanish “frontier workers”. The government of Gibraltar reported 21,519 employees in the territory in 2012; roughly 10,000 of these are Spanish. A further 2,000 European citizens also come to Gibraltar for work.
The CFG has made its case to the UK All- Party Parliamentary Group on Gibraltar and the regional government of Andalusia. In February, it lobbied in Brussels off the back of a dossier submitted to the European Parliament. The present situation does not reflect the EU’s commitment to the single market and freedom of movement, it says.
Frontier workers travelling into Gibraltar for jobs have supported the economy on both sides of the border. Today there are about 10,000 Spanish workers in Gibraltar
Christian Duo is the regional officer of Unite Gibraltar, the Rock’s largest union, which has 4,200 members and is one of the eight unions leading the CFG. He says that given a workforce that ebbs and flows from the Rock each day, Unite, with a presence in Gibraltar since the 1920s, has always prioritised the interests of frontier workers.
“Predominantly, the Spanish labour force is concentrated in the construction industry and the tourist and retail sector,” he says. “They are an important component of the labour market that helps to sustain our growing economy.”
Gibraltar’s economy is indeed robust. GDP per capita is £41,138. Recent figures reported annual growth of 10.3 per cent. Unemployment generally sits below 3 per cent, compared to the Spanish national average of 26 per cent.
Duo reminds me that historically, the percentage of Spanish workers in Gibraltar’s labour market has always been high, and the territory has thus had a sustained impact on the Campo de Gibraltar, the hinterland region, which covers 590 square miles and is home to more than 260,000 people.
Today this impact is even more significant in the light of the Campo’s high unemployment levels. In La Línea de la Concepción, a town just across the border (population: 65,000), unemployment stands at 36 per cent.
Many Spanish families derive an income from their work in Gibraltar, Duo explains; conversely, Gibraltarians’ purchasing power spreads wealth into the surrounding Spanish municipality. He is not alone in believing that the border restrictions are “politically designed to cause as much damage to [Gibraltar’s] economy as possible” but says that this is, in fact, “hurting mostly [Spain’s] own workforce and business community”.
The Spanish delegation in the CFG includes two of the country’s oldest and largest trade unions – the Confederación Sindical de Comisiones Obreras (CCOO) and the Unión General de Trabajadores (UGT), which was founded in the late 19th century. The two unions say their stance is one of opposition to the sharp austerity measures introduced by the Socialist Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero in 2010 and further “radicalised” by the conservative Partido Popular, which assumed power in 2011. Both believe Gibraltar plays a significant role in providing jobs and wealth to the Campo, and they share concerns about the impact of Madrid’s restrictions.
Photos from the Cross Frontier Group’s meetings with MEPS and EU commissioners during their visit to the European Parliament in February
“The economic differences on either side of the border are enormous,” says Manuel Triano Paulete, organising secretary of the CCOO’s division in the region. Paulete says workers crossing the border “spend hours standing in adverse climatic conditions and are often made to arrive late for work”. He adds that “above all this is impacting their family life or health at work. The current situation is an attack upon workers’ rights and free circulation.”
Alliances with other organisations are part of the CCOO’s position of “resistance and confrontation” in the face of austerity, Paulete tells me. “Positive things, such as the formation of this group, can sometimes surge from a crisis. The CCOO and the trade union movement is a principal force not only for resistance, but for articulating a co-operative proposal for an exit to the [Spanish economic] crisis.”
The union wants to see companies based in Gibraltar “expand their investment on this side of the border”, thus helping to alleviate unemployment. Ideally, “Gibraltar could be an extraordinary motor that drives economic growth,” he says, but this proposal is “diametrically opposed to what is being done currently”.
In 2009, Professor John Fletcher of Bournemouth University conducted research into the economies of Gibraltar and the Campo. His findings uphold a picture of interdependence: nearly one in five jobs (18 per cent) in the Campo region were supported by Gibraltar’s economy. Broadly, Gibraltar was responsible for approximately 12.2 per cent of total GDP in the Campo area in 2007. For example, La Línea has for a long time filled the manufacturing gaps in Gibraltar’s service-based economy, providing raw materials and building supplies. Tour operators, hotels, shops and restaurants have also benefited from holidaymakers travelling to Gibraltar. “It is reasonable to state that without Gibraltar, La Línea’s unemployment rate [currently 37 per cent] would be higher,” the CFG concedes.
Yet, worryingly, a survey carried out in the autumn of 2013 by the Association of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises in La Línea (a CFG member group) found that up to 32 per cent of businesses in sectors such as retail, hospitality and professional services had seen sales fall since the increased checks began in August.
Gibraltar has been negatively impacted, too. Tourism figures dropped noticeably over the past summer. With nearly half its workforce commuting from Spain, freedom of movement is vital to its continued economic health.
Ángel Serrano Gómez, general secretary for the regional UGT, tells me that the fates of these two lands are intertwined. “Our implication in the trans-border group is a normal and fluid continuation of the relations we have always had with trade union officials from Gibraltar,” he says. “We are convinced of the mutual needs and believe that the only way to resolve the problems affecting these neighbours is to maintain dialogue over and above any politics of confrontation.”
The CFG’s aim is simple, he says: to fight for a “free and normal life” – a life “without obstacles set by politicians”, who he feels are out of touch with the desires of local people. Gómez’s take on the situation is fierce and poetic: “UGT members cannot afford to lower their guard against the unemployment that is drowning the families of the Campo de Gibraltar. As with water in a river, we must be allowed to run freely. The queues do not respect human rights; they only serve to bring conflict to the area.”
The solutions, he says, will not come from London, Madrid, or even Brussels, which are all “too far away”. The answer, it seems, will be home-grown. “We have to understand each other as neighbours,” Gómez concludes. “And we will stand by Gibraltar for as long as it provides well-being to the workers and families of the region.”
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