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Angry crowd toss mud, insults at Spanish king visiting region devastated by floods
A crowd of angry survivors of the devasting floods in Spain’s eastern region of Valencia tossed mud and shouted insults at King Felipe VI on Sunday.
“Get out! Get out!” and “Killers” the crowd shouted among other insults as the monarch, accompanied by Queen Letizia and other government officials, tried to talk to locals in Paiporta, an outskirt of Valencia city that has been devastated.
Bodyguards opened umbrellas to protect the royals and officials as the crowd of several dozen launched mud their way.
MANAURE QUINTERO/AFP via Getty Images
Police had to step in with some officers on horseback to keep back the crowd. After being forced to seek protection, the king remained calm and made several efforts to speak to individual residents. One person appeared to have wept on his shoulder. He shook the hand of a man.
The queen was seen speaking to women with small glops of mud on her hands and arms.
MANAURE QUINTERO/AFP via Getty Images
“We have lost everything!” someone shouted to the royals.
Spain’s worst floods in decades have left whole neighborhoods covered in mud and strewn with mangled cars and debris. More than 200 people have died since Tuesday’s floods and many more are missing. At least 60 of the dead were in Paiporta, an epicenter of suffering.
The indignation of the management of Spain’s worst natural disaster in living memory started after the initial shock wore off. More anger has been fueled by the inability of officials to respond quickly to the aftermath.
Hugo Torres / AP
Most of the cleanup of the layers and layers of mud and debris that have invaded countless homes has been done by residents and thousands of volunteers.
Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez was scheduled to accompany the king on the visit. But it is not clear if Sánchez was there at the moment the contingent was pelted with mud.
MANAURE QUINTERO/AFP via Getty Images
Felipe insisted on trying to dialogue with people as he tried to continue his visit. He spoke to several people, patting two young men on their backs and sharing a quick embrace, with mud stains on his black raincoat.
According to a journalist for Spanish broadcaster RTVE near Felipe, one woman wept and told him she didn’t have food and diapers while another person said “Don’t abandon us.”
But after approximately half an hour of tension, the monarchs got in official cars and left with a mounted police escort.
On Saturday, Sánchez ordered 10,000 more troops, police officers and civil guards to the area.
Boeing’s 33,000 unionized machinists on Wednesday voted to approve the plane manufacturer’s latest contract offer, ending a seven-week strike that had halted production of most of the company’s passenger planes.
The union said 59% voted to accept the contract. Members have the option of returning to work as soon as Wednesday, but must be back at work by Tuesday, November 12, the union said in a statement.
Union leaders had strongly urged members to ratify the latest proposal, which would boost wages by 38% over the four-year life of the contract, up from a proposed increase of 35% that members of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) had rejected last month.
The revised deal also provides a $12,000 cash bonus to hourly workers and increased contributions to retirement savings plans. The enhanced offer doesn’t address a key sticking point in the contentious talks — restoration of pensions — but Boeing would raise its contributions to employee 401K plans.
Average annual pay for machinists, now $75,608, would climb to $119,309 in four years under the current offer, Boeing said.
The vote came after IAM members in September and October rejected lesser offers by the Seattle-based aerospace giant.
“In every negotiation and strike, there is a point where we have extracted everything we can in bargaining and by withholding our labor,” the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers stated last week in backing Boeing’s revised offer. “We are at that point now and risk a regressive or lesser offer in the future.”
Acting U.S. Labor Secretary Julie Su has played an active role in the negotiations, after recently helping to end a days-long walkout that briefly closed East and Gulf Coast ports.
The Boeing strike that began on Sept. 13 marked the latest setback for the manufacturing giant, which has been the focus of multiple federal probes after a door plug blew off a 737 Max plane during an Alaska Airlines flight in January. The incident revived concerns about the safety of the aircraft after two crashed within five months in 2018 and 2019, killing 346 people.
Boeing in July agreed to plead guilty to conspiracy to commit fraud for deceiving regulators who approved the 737 Max.
During the strike, Boeing was unable to produce any new 737 aircraft, which are made at the company’s assembly plants in the Seattle area. One major Boeing jet, the 787 Dreamliner, is manufactured at a nonunion factory in South Carolina.
The company last month reported a third-quarter loss of $6.1 billion.
contributed to this report.
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