UGT and CCOO report 90% participation in automotive and ports
Millions of workers walked out across Spain on Wednesday in a nationwide general strike demanding that the government remedy the country’s housing crisis. UGT and CCOO called the action, Spain’s first general strike in 14 years, less than three weeks before a national election in which months of polling have shown voters leaning toward the right. The unions also demanded a new minimum-wage agreement through talks with the business owners’ association, and the walkout used the slogan “Salaries. Housing. Prices.”
In a joint statement, UGT and CCOO said participation was widespread, “with significant work stoppages in strategic sectors.” The unions reported 90% participation in the automotive and port sectors, 85% in the meat industry, 82% in waste collection and 75% in the energy sector.
The action caused delays in the public transport system and slowed factories across the eurozone’s fourth-largest economy. In Barcelona, the country’s second-largest city, public transport was at a standstill or facing long delays during the morning rush hour. Madrid saw heavy morning rains, and its city buses were the hardest affected. Many schools and universities reportedly closed or were operating at minimal capacity. The general strike also came during a teachers’ strike in Madrid that had begun nearly a month earlier to demand better working conditions.
Unions called Madrid workers to gather and march through the city center later Wednesday, while marches and gatherings were also planned in Barcelona and other cities. Minor incidents were reported during the strike’s first hours, including roadblocks in Barcelona — some involving burning tires — and scuffles between picketers and police near the country’s main wholesale market on Madrid’s outskirts. Earlier, at midnight, striking workers set off fireworks as they gathered in public squares in Barcelona.
The strike brought together workers, activists, politicians and ordinary Spaniards around the shared interest of accessible housing. The average rent in Spain has almost doubled in the last 10 years, eating into household budgets and angering voters. Unai Sordo, secretary general of CCOO, said on Cadena Ser radio, “There is one issue that is dividing the country: the struggle to access housing.”
Sandra Mora, a spokesperson for the Tenants’ Union, told national radio RNE, “It’s extremely important to remind people that we, the workers — who are also renters or who also pay mortgages — are the ones with the power to halt production and bring the economy to a standstill.”
Public anger over housing reached a boiling point after the nationally televised eviction of an 87-year-old woman from her Madrid home last month. Her subsequent death, after she became known as Maricarmen, caused even more indignation and made her a symbol of Spaniards who feel they pay too much in rent and cannot even dream of homeownership. Housing activists leveraged the uproar over Maricarmen’s eviction to call for the general strike and soon won the backing of the UGT and CCOO unions.
The housing activists sought the elimination of tourist apartments, curbs on real-estate speculation and protection for renters through automatic lease renewals. UGT and CCOO also demanded greater government intervention in the housing market.
Spain’s government pushed emergency measures to limit evictions and help tenants after the nationwide protests over Maricarmen’s eviction. Right-wing parties in Parliament refused to ratify the measures, arguing they would provoke a flight of properties from the rental market.
Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez announced the election on Oct. 5, hoping to secure four more years for his left-wing coalition. A high-speed train collision then became Spain’s second deadly rail disaster of the year, killing 69 people and dominating Spanish news. The crash created a drag on Sánchez’s campaign just as he sought momentum. Oriol Bartomeus, a professor of political science at the Autonomous University of Barcelona, said the strike offered Sánchez’s Socialists and other left-wing parties — whose support he needs to remain in power — an opportunity to focus the campaign on housing.
Bartomeus said the Socialists needed the strike to succeed without violence so the election campaign could swing back to housing. He said violence could benefit right-wing parties that have joined forces to govern in some Spanish regions. Spain, like other European countries, often has peaceful public protests that radical groups take advantage of to clash with police and destroy property.
“The Popular Party and Vox both want the strike to be a flop and to end in scenes of burning dumpsters and shattered shop windows,” Bartomeus said, so that the next morning, “they can say, ‘This is chaos and we are coming to establish order.’” The Popular Party and Vox oppose government intervention in the housing market other than incentivizing the construction of new homes. Both also argue that the unions are trying to help Sánchez remain in office, citing months of polling that showed voters leaning toward the right. Popular Party spokesperson Miguel Tellado said Tuesday, “This strike is not a general strike; it is an electoral strike.”
Sánchez posted a long video on social media this week, praising previous social policies such as the 40-hour work week and national health insurance as products of the workers’ movement and the right to strike. “It wasn’t easy, but they changed Spain,” Sánchez said, while warning that right-wing parties would bring austerity and underfunded social services. Verónica Martínez, spokesperson for Sumar, the junior member of the government, separately said, “the Left needs the workers of this country to mobilize. Rights are first won on the streets and then later in the institution.”
On Thursday, Spain’s government was scheduled to try again to have a reduced interim Parliament ratify two housing decrees that the full lower chamber rejected last month.