Twisted Titan
8th June 2010, 02:58 PM
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/strikes-in-spain-protesting-cuts-get-underway-2010-06-08?siteid=YAHOOB
The summer of rage is coming
Spanish public workers take to the streets to protest wage cuts
24-hour strike called by Spain's biggest trade unions got off to a mostly peaceful start on Tuesday, as government and union officials presented vastly different figures on involvement of those workers.
Public-sector employees are protesting government austerity measures that will cut individual salaries for public workers in health and education, among other fields, from this month. Demonstrations took place across Spain, with some calling for Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero to resign, according to Spanish media reports.
Earlier in the day, at the large governmental offices of Nuevo Ministerios, which is home for the housing and environmental ministry among others, protesters waved red banners, blew whistles, and blocked some entrances as they tried to persuade fellow workers headed to their jobs, to join the action.
The main unions here, the UGT, CCOO and the CSI-CSIF said participation of its members was at 75.3%, but the government said it was more around 11%, noting few disruptions to services, according to Spanish news agency Efe
Unlike what has been seen in Greece earlier this year, when a bank was set on fire with loss of life over austerity measures there, protests in Spain were so far without much incident. In Barcelona, though, earlier in the day a group of protesters burned tires, cutting off traffic to an exit for Diagonal de Barcelona, a main artery that crosses the city, said Efe.
Last month, the Spanish parliament barely approved a contested 15 billion euro ($18 billion) in spending cuts, after a tense debate in which the future of Zapatero was hanging in the balance. See austerity measures
In addition to cutting public-sector pay, the austerity measures also call for suspending automatic inflation-adjusted pensions and scrapping a payout that parents get for the birth of new children.
The strikes Tuesday are also seen as testing grounds for unions that may call for further action if the government imposes labor-market reforms that infringe on workers' rights. Labor reforms have been a long time in coming in Spain, but have taken on new urgency with the government's pressing deficit issues, with more pressure coming from the European Union and the International Monetary Fund, not to mention ratings agencies for Spain to speed up this process.
The government earlier this year announced €50 billion in austerity measures, but it has come under increasing pressure by financial markets to come up with more savings to bring its debt-to-GDP ratio down to 3% by 2013 -- it was 11.2% in 2009 -- and shake off the naysayers who make parallels with Greece's dire economic conditions and those of Spain. See also How much should markets really fear Spain?
"Although the measures being pursued by the government have been broadly welcomed by the markets and international investors, they have also led to a decline in the government's popularity at home to unprecedented lows," said Dragana Ignjatovic, political analyst IHS Global Insight Europe in a note released Tuesday. "This is set to complicate its attempts to push through the reforms considerably."
The government is facing even tougher times with its 2011 budget, with smaller regional parties already warning their support will have a price, and the opposition voting against nearly everything the government, the analyst noted. "This has in essence created an environment of political instability in Spain, which is simply exacerbating the current economic problems.
"Zapatero has so far ruled out an early election, saying that it would be far too politically destabilizing, but with pressure mounting from all sides, he will need to take drastic action in order to keep his government in power until the next scheduled election in 2012," said Ignjatovic.
The summer of rage is coming
Spanish public workers take to the streets to protest wage cuts
24-hour strike called by Spain's biggest trade unions got off to a mostly peaceful start on Tuesday, as government and union officials presented vastly different figures on involvement of those workers.
Public-sector employees are protesting government austerity measures that will cut individual salaries for public workers in health and education, among other fields, from this month. Demonstrations took place across Spain, with some calling for Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero to resign, according to Spanish media reports.
Earlier in the day, at the large governmental offices of Nuevo Ministerios, which is home for the housing and environmental ministry among others, protesters waved red banners, blew whistles, and blocked some entrances as they tried to persuade fellow workers headed to their jobs, to join the action.
The main unions here, the UGT, CCOO and the CSI-CSIF said participation of its members was at 75.3%, but the government said it was more around 11%, noting few disruptions to services, according to Spanish news agency Efe
Unlike what has been seen in Greece earlier this year, when a bank was set on fire with loss of life over austerity measures there, protests in Spain were so far without much incident. In Barcelona, though, earlier in the day a group of protesters burned tires, cutting off traffic to an exit for Diagonal de Barcelona, a main artery that crosses the city, said Efe.
Last month, the Spanish parliament barely approved a contested 15 billion euro ($18 billion) in spending cuts, after a tense debate in which the future of Zapatero was hanging in the balance. See austerity measures
In addition to cutting public-sector pay, the austerity measures also call for suspending automatic inflation-adjusted pensions and scrapping a payout that parents get for the birth of new children.
The strikes Tuesday are also seen as testing grounds for unions that may call for further action if the government imposes labor-market reforms that infringe on workers' rights. Labor reforms have been a long time in coming in Spain, but have taken on new urgency with the government's pressing deficit issues, with more pressure coming from the European Union and the International Monetary Fund, not to mention ratings agencies for Spain to speed up this process.
The government earlier this year announced €50 billion in austerity measures, but it has come under increasing pressure by financial markets to come up with more savings to bring its debt-to-GDP ratio down to 3% by 2013 -- it was 11.2% in 2009 -- and shake off the naysayers who make parallels with Greece's dire economic conditions and those of Spain. See also How much should markets really fear Spain?
"Although the measures being pursued by the government have been broadly welcomed by the markets and international investors, they have also led to a decline in the government's popularity at home to unprecedented lows," said Dragana Ignjatovic, political analyst IHS Global Insight Europe in a note released Tuesday. "This is set to complicate its attempts to push through the reforms considerably."
The government is facing even tougher times with its 2011 budget, with smaller regional parties already warning their support will have a price, and the opposition voting against nearly everything the government, the analyst noted. "This has in essence created an environment of political instability in Spain, which is simply exacerbating the current economic problems.
"Zapatero has so far ruled out an early election, saying that it would be far too politically destabilizing, but with pressure mounting from all sides, he will need to take drastic action in order to keep his government in power until the next scheduled election in 2012," said Ignjatovic.