The professional shovel pelotaris have called off the indefinite strike they started in May 2025

The professional shovel pelotaris have called off the indefinite strike that began in May 2025, as detailed in a note published on Thursday. In the text, the pelotaris specify that there is currently no pelotari with a contract with Innpala and also explain how, as part of the Bizkaia Frontoia tendering process, they support one of the two projects presented there.

Thus, the Pala Professional Pelotaris Group, in the first part of the note, summarizes what has happened in recent months. They recall that they organized themselves with the ELA union and called for an improvement in their working conditions and in the sport in which they operate. They point out that they tried to meet with the then owner of the company Custom Massevents (Innpala), Jose Ramon Garai, but they couldn't; and remember that on 21 March 2025 they called the first day of the strike.

The indefinite strike began in early May 2025. The sportsmen and women have said that "some pelotaris have received offers of renewal", but they have insisted that "the conflict must be addressed collectively." In the absence of progress, the conflict was stopped "backwards and forwards" and both sides, pelotaris and companies, stopped until the end of the Bizkaia Fronton tendering process.

This process started a few months ago, and two projects have been presented, according to the palists: one is from the current company Custom Massevents (Innpala), which told the pelotaris that it would not run; the other is new, and the sportsmen support it. "Today," they stress, "there is no pelotari with a contract with Innpala, so we cancel the indefinite strike that we started in May."

The group is still waiting "for decisions that are taking longer than usual" and has expressed its confidence that "we hope that everything will be resolved as soon as possible and that we will be able to return to the frontons." The palists also add: "We want to make it clear that we started this conflict thinking about the best for the present and future of the professional shovel, which has always been the subject of all our decisions.