General Strike Day
Thousands are planned to demonstrate against the Spanish Governments new labour law reforms.
The main UGT and CCOO union militants have been canvassing the working public to down tools and join the demonstrations. Ignacio Fernandez Toxo, leader of the CCOO union has stated that 'the mobilisation will continue' with Candido Mendez, leader of UGT union saying the measures put in place by the Popular Party government to drag Spain out of recession were not temporary but 'for the rest of our lives'.
The Prime Minister, Mariano Rajoy has already accepted that his labour reforms would cost him a general strike but the unions are gearing up for additional industrial action unless the government agrees to open a dialogue with them.
Polls show that more than 80 per cent of the population disagree with the reforms which are seen as oppressive and unfairly biased towards employers, especially those that have workforces of 50 people or less, making it cheaper and easier to sack workers.
The number of registered unemployment people in Spain is now at 4.7million the worst for over 3 years. In the Valencian region it is 566,000.
In addition to this, there are reports that Spain has accepted the Eurogroup demand to reduce its national deficit to 5.3% which will mean reducing the 2013 budget by an extra 5 billion euros, a target that will mean an increase in IVA, cutting unemployment benefits and making 250,000 civil servants redundant.
Prime Minister Rajoy had previously stated that reducing the deficit to 5.8% will mean having to make budget cuts of 39 billion euros. The budget on how this will be achieved is expected to be approved by the spanish Cabinet at the end of this month with changes in education, energy, justice and public services.
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