Clank, clank, clank! The sound of foam bullets and slingshots can be heard once again in the region. On the morning of 9 November 2021, the Bay of Cádiz, a coastal region in southern Spain, awakened on a war footing due to the metal sector strike. From the coast of El Puerto de Santa María, one of the cities in the Bay, smoke could be seen rising from the barricades set up at shipyard entrances in the municipalities of Cádiz, Puerto Real and San Fernando, and along avenues and industrial estates where the main iron and steel companies were concentrated. The unions had called a strike for 9 and 10 November when negotiations for a provincial agreement on the metal sector had reached stalemate. The workers’ representatives were demanding a wage increase of around 2 per cent per year to compensate for the high inflation forecast for the period covered by the agreement and, most importantly, a clause stipulating that the wage increase would be reviewed at the end of the period and adjusted to the rise in prices. Their employers’ lack of flexibility in this regard prompted the workers to call a new, indefinite strike starting on 16 November. While the employers argued that the wage costs were unaffordable and would result in a loss of domestic and international competitiveness and subsequent job cuts, the workers demanded protection for their wages as living costs continued to rise. The strike lasted until 25 November. After nine days of picketing, demonstrations, barricades and clashes with state security forces, employers and workers reached an agreement that allowed workers to maintain their purchasing power amid high inflation.