Two workers spend three hours up a 40-metre crane in Burgos, Spain, over unpaid wages

Two Egyptian workers face off 40 metres up in Burgos to claim three months of unpaid wages

On 18 April 2026, two workers of Egyptian origin climbed a 40-metre crane in Burgos and stayed perched up there for three hours. It was not a joke or a circus act: they had gone three months without pay. According to the complaints, the company had hired them off the books. When they demanded their wages, the answer was silence. So they risked their lives to be heard.

The protest lasted exactly as long as it took a union official to talk them into coming down – with the promise of sorting out the payment. But the moment their feet touched solid ground, it was the workers, not the employer, whom the police arrested. Meanwhile, word spread that the foreman had been carrying a gun. The Labour Inspectorate, for now, is nowhere to be seen.

The contrast with another recent case is revealing. At Navantia Cádiz, two welders, Jesús Galván and Manuel Balber, have spent 22 days up a crane demanding a decent contract. They get a visit from minister Ione Belarra, authorised by Congress. The two Egyptians in Burgos get arrested. The double standard is hard to hide.

The myth of the labour shortage

The headline that opens this story – "No workers can be found" – is the same one employers keep repeating to justify low wages and precarious conditions. The reality is that workers do exist, but in many cases they are hired off the books, without rights, and when they protest, they end up at the police station. An employer who hires undocumented immigrants and denies them their wages does not have a supply problem: it has an impunity problem.

What remains unresolved

While we wait to see whether the Labour Inspectorate acts and the company pays what it owes, the case raises an uncomfortable question: how many more workers are in the same situation without ever making it up a crane? The next time someone claims there is a shortage of workers, it is worth remembering that what is actually in short supply are labour rights and the will to enforce the law.

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