Workers across Spain stage first general strike in 14 years

SPEAKER_1 (0:00)

The Hard Shoulder, with Ciara Kelly and Shane Colman, on Newstalk, with Kia.

Shane Colman (0:08)

Now, it turns out we aren't the only country dealing with strikes, or the threat of strike action, at the moment. Workers across Spain began their first general strike in 14 years today, largely, it seems, over the housing crisis. For more on this, we're joined by Spain-based journalist Simon Hunter. Simon, what's happening, exactly?

Simon Hunter (0:29)

Yeah, well, as you said, this is the first nation-wide general strike that we've seen in 14 years, and millions of people have gone out onto the streets today, and have stopped working. There's certainly a bit of a battle going on for the narrative as to what's happening today, because the unions are calling it a big success, whereas right-wing parties are quicker to point out that, or saying that it's been a failure, because this is a very strange strike. We're just about to go into an election campaign. We've got an election at the end of the month. But this isn't exactly a strike against the central government, as you might expect. There are certainly criticisms of the central government, saying that the socialist-led administration has not done enough to improve their housing crisis. But because of the way the government works in Spain, you've got regional governments, and you've got local governments, like local councils. They also have a lot to do with the housing market. For example, regional and local governments can build more public housing. They can free up land for development.

So really, it's a protest against many different levels of government for a situation whereby young people are finding it increasingly difficult to get out of the family home. And even couples with dual incomes are finding that most of their money is being eaten up by spiralling rents, and housing prices have really gone up in recent years as well.

Shane Colman (2:03)

And so this strike has been organized by the national unions, is that right?

Simon Hunter (2:08)

That's correct, yeah. The strike has been organized by the two biggest trade unions in Spain, which are called UGT and CCOO. And it is quite rare, I mean, to have a strike that is actually about an issue such as affordability about house prices, because normally obviously, you know, general strikes are to do with working conditions and pay.

But this has been building for a while because the Spaniards have been dealing with this, you know, I've lived here for many, I've lived here for nearly 27 years. And when I moved here, Spain was a very cheap place to live. It was, you know, lower salaries, but your salary would go quite far because the cost of living was very low as well. And what's been very, very clear in recent years is that everything is creeping up, the price of everything is creeping up, but it is particularly the problem of housing in big cities like Madrid and Barcelona that are really starting to squeeze people. And of course, there are many different factors for that. A lot of it is to do with tourism, the advent of Airbnb style rentals, people being pushed out of the centre. But also, wealthy investors coming to cities like Madrid, buying up property, particularly from Latin America in recent years, buying up property and subsequently pushing up the prices.

Shane Colman (3:27)

Is there a party political dimension to this? Obviously, there's a general election only around the corner in Spain, coming up on the 29th of November.

Simon Hunter (3:37)

Oh, absolutely, yeah.

And the Conservative People's Party, which is currently in the opposition, that party is expected to win the elections, not with an outright win. It will probably have to do a deal with far-right Vox in order to actually form a government. And the Conservative People's Party has been very much saying that the unions have organised a politically motivated strike against a possible future right-wing government. That's why I said it's a very strange strike, because it's almost like a strike against a government that hasn't actually been formed yet. But the unions insist that they're just defending workers' rights and demanding action from politicians at all those levels that I mentioned.

Shane Colman (4:18)

Okay. And sorry, you said at the outset that both sides were claiming different things. One said a huge success, another said not a huge success.

Like what was the turnout like?

Simon Hunter (4:29)

We haven't got official figures yet. We haven't got the figures confirmed.

But it looks like around four, according to the unions, they're saying around four million people down tools, and that's from an active population of just over 22 million. So it's around 20 percent if those figures are correct. We're also seeing a lot of people out on the street, despite the horrible weather, we've got all sorts of storms, rain and wind across different parts of Spain. So some of the marches have actually had to be cancelled, but people are out on the streets this evening. People have been out on picket lines today. There's been a lot of clashes with police. The unions are calling for investigations into the heavy-handed nature of the police. There's been clashes with battens and pepper spray. So yeah, there's going to be a lot to unpick tomorrow once all the marches are over, and we can get an idea of just how many people followed the strike.