Latest news from the papers ahead of tomorrows general strike
The General Strike in Spain is tomorrow and El Mundo headlines that the unions have started making threats, fearing a failure. In Asturias ‘convincing and informative pickets have been announced’, in the Canaries the unions warned of the ‘serious risk’ for children who go to school, in Cataluña ‘it will not be a normal day’, and in Madrid ‘minimum services will not be guaranteed’.
El Mundo also notes that the Royal Family has suspended all their events on the day.
El País says that Zapatero wants a closer deal with the UGT and CCOO unions on labour reform, and the Prime Minister wants to discuss the matter after the strike. The paper notes the two union leaders, Toxo and Méndez, have described the conciliatory tactic from the Government as ‘crude’.
ABC says the unions have linked the success of the strike to the lock down of Madrid, and notes that they are not guaranteeing minimum services in the capital. The paper notes too that the Prime Minister has offered talks on the day after.
La Razón says that the unions have snubbed the Government, and that CCOO and UGT will not attend a meeting on the 2011 budgets called for today. The paper notes that the CEOE employers’ organisation fears the action of flying pickets.
It’s that voiced claim which has led to the headline in Público which says the employers have set the strike on fire. It notes that the CEOE president has said that if participation levels are high it will be because of the actions of the pickets or insufficient minimum services fixed by the Government.
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Countdown to Spain's General Strike underway
The stoppage takes place on Wednesday September 29
The countdown to Wednesday’s General Strike in Spain is underway, with union activists busy distributing leaflets to work places and stickers and placards to members.
UGT leader, Cándido Méndez, has said he is convinced the strike will be successful, and that demonstrations called on the day will be massively attended.
However the President of the employers’ organisation, CEOE, Gerardo Díax Ferran, said that workers would not be working because they did not want to, rather because they were being stopped from doing so by pickets or the level of minimum services. He said the strike is ‘incongruous, inappropriate, unnecessary, useless and harmful’ for Spaniards in General but for workers in particular.
Meanwhile, the unions have declined to meet with the Minister for Tax and Economy, Elena Salgado, on Tuesday, the day before the stoppage, after she requested a conversation on the budgets for 2011. UGT and CCOO responded by saying she was ‘taking the Mickey’ and the invitation was ‘a manoeuvre of manipulation’.
Internet polls continue to show a majority of Spaniards saying that they will not follow the strike call.
Minimum transport services are now established across the different regions of the country, and most airlines have published details of the
flights that will be running on their webpages