Sindicato Popular de Vendedores Ambulantes | |
Established: | --> |
Founders: | --> |
Defunct: | --> |
Type: | Trade Union |
Vat Id: | (for European organizations) --> |
Focus: | --> |
Location Country: | Spain |
Area Served: | or |
Region: | --> |
Product: | --> |
Method: | --> |
Field: | --> |
Languages: | --> |
Owners: | --> |
Publication: | --> |
Parent Organisation: | --> |
Former Name: | --> |
The Sindicato Popular de Vendedores Ambulantes (Popular Union of Street Vendors) is a workers union representing street vendors (known as manteros) in Spain.[1] [2] The vendors often face precarious economic conditions, lack of access to government services, racist discrimination, and violence from the hands of police.[3] [4]
In 2015, the community of street vendors in Barcelona, mostly undocumented west-African immigrants, banded together to unionise, forming the Sindicato Popular de Vendedores Ambulantes.[5] [6]
In 2017, the union launched its own fashion brand, named Top Manta. Its logo was based on both the shape of a blanket, as many manteros lay their wares on blankets, and the shape of a canoe, meant to symbolise the way many of the union's members arrived in Spain.[7]
The union participated in the Food Sovereignty and Small Scale Fisheries Encounter in Barcelona in June 2019.[8]
During the COVID-19 pandemic in Spain, the union organised a network to distribute food and necessities to vulnerable families. The union transformed parts of its Top Manta clothing store into a workshop to make face masks and PPE.[9] However, the union faced attacks from police, with the Guàrdia Urbana de Barcelona threatening anti-racist mutual aid groups with fines up 60 000 €.[10] The pandemic also posed significant difficulties for street vendors, as they were ineligible for social benefits and unable to gain income from selling due to quarantine measures.[11]
In February 2021, the union received a £7500 grant from Black Lives Matter UK, among the first organisations to be granted.[12] In March 2021, Serigne Mbayé, the spokesperson of the union's Madrid branch, announced that he would be running in the 2021 Madrilenian regional election under the Unidas Podemos banner.[13] [14]