The heavyweights of the Port during the last 30 years leave the ship

They all contributed under the direction of up to ten presidents of all political colors (PP, CC and PSOE) to the transformation of the current port., a ‘giant’ in the middle of the Atlantic that has known how to take advantage of the opportunities that its privileged location has offered it and that has been pushed by dozens of businessmen who knew how to see them. Today, already outside, They trust that this aggrandizement will continue and hope that the next presidents and teams that arrive will know how to work for the common good and not be carried away by partisan interests.

From 1993, when the change of the Port Board took place to the Port Authority, and to date the road has been long. “It was a process of converting the port into a fundamentally commercial and multidisciplinary entity, with the perspective of being a leader and taking advantage of the economy and the synergies of all the companies to enhance the assets,” says Del Nero, who remembers that it was then when valued activities such as container transshipment (today the port’s main source of income) and the cruise ships, whose growth has been exponential. As an example, a fact: when Martín arrived at the Port, the cruise industry was “symbolic” and barely 25,000 passengers were registered in 1992. Today there are more than 1.2 million.

He Sports Pier It was also then an “innkeeper” of boats “placed in any way” and today it is the largest marina in the Canary Islands and with a growth project. Del Nero and Martín remember today as the great milestone of the port, the construction of the Queen Sofia (which began in the 70s and continues to grow today) and which allowed the development of the port that we know today. «Then the ‘offshore’ ships arrived in 2001 and everything that we are seeing, but the germ was laid during the last two decades with measures based on infrastructure, qualified personnel and coordination of staff. Without forgetting, they insist, Martín and Del Nero, the powerful island companies that have demonstrated their capacity for work and know-how.. “We were a team with important technical leadership and, in collaboration with companies, it worked,” they say.

Unfilled positions and without civil engineers

Today, some of the positions that these managers have left have not been replaced. This will happen with the commercial management, which is downgraded in the new organization chart and will be a division within Accounting, Administration and Finance. Regarding these positions that, in theory, are going to be announced, both ask that the law and the criteria of “merit, capacity and equality” be followed. “Any company benefits from open competitions to choose the best,” say both, who regret, given the labor conflicts within them, that Las Palmas has been at the head of the State in labor litigation for eight years. “The Port is losing almost all lawsuits. Something must be corrected so as not to belittle the workers,” says Del Nero.

One of the facts that both consider most worrying is the emptiness that is occurring in the Port of civil engineers, Canals and Ports. Currently there is only one left with that training (José Daniel López), who has a few years left to retire and whose current functions are not directly linked to engineering. Furthermore, there is no intention to hire more when, as Del Nero and Martín point out, the rest of the Spanish ports, including Santa Cruz de Tenerife, have several Civil Engineers. «It is the only career that has a specific subject on port exploitation. It is not understood what is happening. A hospital does not consider not having doctors,” says Martín.

«In Las Palmas engineers have been replaced, who are the exploitation specialists, by lawyers and economists, when for example, in the rest of the large Spanish ports their directors are civil engineers,” adds Del Nero, who clarifies that, although it is not mandatory, “for some reason be”. In his opinion, the workforce “has become impoverished” from an intellectual and technological point of view, since it is no longer multidisciplinary. «We have gone from a predominance of engineers, which was not advisable, to the most absolute absence, which is ridiculous. The risk is that the pace of development could be lost,” he says.

In this sense, Martín points out that it is necessary to development of a new planning for the port of Las Palmas, which “is still surviving” from the one that was launched between 2000-2007, almost 20 years ago. “The planning takes years to be approved and a new one should have been launched four or five years ago but we still don’t have it,” they both lament.

Offshore wind, an opportunity but in Arinaga

In the future, in the short term, both emphasize that offshore wind will play a key role in the Canary Islands but both consider that the port of Las Palmas is not the ideal enclave and point to Arinaga. “Offshore cargo is an opportunity for merchandise and operations for the port but not in La Luz,” says Martín. Del Nero shares what it is an “opportunity” because it is a business related to naval repairs and allows for increased activity in this sector although, in his opinion, this cannot be the ‘leitmotiv’ of the port, whose reason for being is to continue serving international maritime traffic and continue competing with the big ones. In line with Martín, Del Nero considers it necessary to analyze and determine what to do with the port of Arinaga, which is in an embryonic phase and is called to play a fundamental role. «We have to think about the future and a melon that the Port Authority must open is deciding what to do with Salinetas and Arinaga, which is underused and perhaps the most suitable site for the entry of fuel to the island and for offshore wind.

Martín, after thirty years in the Port and having lived with ten presidents, assures that when a new one arrived He only asked “that he be polite.” “So I didn’t mistreat people and I felt satisfied,” he says.