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Josep Lago / AFP - Getty Images
A wounded protester gets assistance following clashes with riot policemen during a demonstration in Barcelona on March 29, 2012 on a national strike day.
Flag-waving Spanish workers livid over labor reforms they see as flagrantly pro-business blocked traffic Thursday, forming boisterous picket lines outside wholesale markets and bus garages, as part of a nationwide strike.
Unions claimed massive participation in the 24-hour stoppage protesting what they claim to be the latest dose of bitter medicine Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy's conservative government has prescribed to appease European Union overseers and jittery investors watching Spain's debt grow and its GDP shrink.
Police arrested a number of protesters in Madrid, while small-scale violence flared in Barcelona, Spain's second city. Tourists were locked out of the Alhambra, a 14th-century Moorish palace in the southern city of Granada which is one of Europe's great cultural monuments.
The unions demanded a "gesture" from the government to scale back the reforms, warning they could cause more unrest from May 1.
The government quickly said no, and downplayed the impact of the strike, which failed to bring the country to a standstill. "There is no stopping on the path to reform," Labor Minister Fatima Banez said.
In fact, the government will on Friday serve up even more austerity pain with a 2012 budget to feature tens of billions of euros (dollars) in deficit-reduction measures.
PhotoBlog: Workers strike in Spain filling streets and closing businesses
The cuts are designed to help Spain lower its deficit to within EU limits and calm the international investors who determine the country's borrowing costs in debt markets — and therefore have a lot of say in whether Spain will follow Greece, Ireland and Portugal in needing a bailout.
There were no reports of significant violence in Thursday's demonstration. A total of 58 people were detained and nine were injured in scuffles as the strike got under way a minute after midnight, Interior Ministry official Cristina Diaz said.
Unions are challenging a conservative government not yet 100 days old, protesting changes to labor market rules long regarded as among Europe's most rigid. Among other things the changes make it cheaper and easier for companies to lay people off and let them cut their wages unilaterally.
On the Gran Via, one of the Spanish capital's main commercial strips, a group of about 500 whistle-blowing picketers marched slowly, blocking traffic for about an hour. Police and helmeted riot police watched from the sidelines.
As the group made its way down the boulevard, many merchants — such as jewelers and clothing retailers — pulled down their metal shutters or locked their front doors.
PhotoBlog: Spanish protests turn violent, destructive
One protester, Angel Andrino, 31, said he was laid off a day after the labor reforms were approved in a decree last month. The government argues that while the reforms might hurt now, they will create jobs in the future. Spain is by official estimates already back in recession.
Andrino lives with his parents and brother, the latter the only one to be employed, with a part-time job.
"We are going through a really hard time, suffering," he said. "The rights that our parents and grandparents fought for are being wiped away without the public being consulted."
General Workers Union Secretary General Candido Mendez put average participation at midday at 77 percent but said that it was 97 percent in industry and construction. "This strike has been an unquestionable success," said Mendez.
Some statistics, however, suggested the strike had not brought the country to a standstill.
Electricity consumption — a measure of industrial and commercial activity — was down by 17 percent at mid-morning, according to the Interior Ministry. That is slightly less than during the last general strike in 2010, which was deemed only partially successful.
Investors are worried about prospects for continued, widespread social unrest of the kind seen in bailed-out Greece. But management professor Jose Ramon Pin of IESE Business School said this will not happen in Spain because people reluctantly accept that the country needs a radical economic makeover.
"This country is in no mood for taking to the streets," Pin said.
One of the strike's most noticeable effects was on public transportation, with unions guaranteeing only around 30 percent of normal service at rush hour times.
"We're offering the government a chance to start a different path (of reform) in search of wider consensus," Ignacio Fernandez Toxo, head of Spain's largest union Comisiones Obreras said. "If not there will be rising social conflict."
The main airline, Iberia, canceled 65 percent of its flights.
By mid-morning, 402 flights had been canceled, National airport operator AENA said. Minimum services decreed by law ensured that 1,675 flights would operate — less than half of the average daily amount of more than 4,500 flights.
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
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"There is no stopping on the path to reform,"
Were this only true for every government. At least Spain is trying. Keep it up, Europe, and you may just dig yourself out of that financial hole yet!
Spain got into this mess by increasing ENTITLEMENTS.
From Wages to Pensions.... Spain simply did what Greece did, and what "someone" in the USA is trying to do to win votes.....PROMISE, PROMISE PROMISE.
As a registered Independent, I have watched this European thing daily play out. The Republicans (to their credit) want Entitlement reform. They do not want higher taxes on the wealthy. They may want to at leat agree to a token increase. As far as Obama.. he will NOT look at reforming Entitlements. Greece, Portugal, Spain..... they simply:
1. RAISED TAXES
2. GAVE MORE ENTITLEMENTS
..... and they are all beyond broken Economic Systems. Germany & England REFORMED....
NO COINCIDENCE THE ONLY 2 EUROPEAN NATIONS ECONOMICALLY HEALTHY CUT ENTITLEMENTS.
What evidence or information do you have to support your obvious "opinions" How, pray tell, are you still alive and well enough to post, since you would certainly be allergic to yourself? Is this all something you've gleaned as you fill your ignorant pie-hole with pork rinds while your rear end is permanently planted on your couch watching Fox. Are you some sort of expert on European affairs. Sorry, moron, The EU and the US are not alike. The EU nations more closely resemble our States. Bet Fox hasn't explained to you why they are dissimilar. The concept would be much too difficult for your pea sized brain to comprehend as simple as it is. The pot calling the kettle black?
The workers of Spain, Greece, France, Italy and their union fed greed are to blame for the financial situation these countries are in !! So many entitlements and no money coming into the Government to sustain the massive entitlements ! Workers in Spain get unlimited free sick days, that's right unlimited and they can not be fired ! Many are not sick just taking the day off and claiming a sick day...what a bunch of crap !
America and Obama want this for America and if they are successful, America will go down like these other countries! I for one will keep the monies I work for and the rest of the free loaders can take a hike and get a job and earn their own. Unions have become greedy pigs, filling their coffers with their memberships dues dues money and lavish their elected officials and managers with the spoils of their memberships hard work, giving them little to nothing in return.
Yet we see this isn't working, the Europe way, and we continue down the same path. If Europe doesn''t turn it around, they'll crash as Greece has.
What's funny is that France is trying to push through new protectionist measures to keep foreigners from bidding for public procurement contracts... at a time when governments are strapped for cash and Europe is trying to improve their economies through trade.
Greece trips, Italy, Spain, and Ireland stumble, and now France dives.
I 100% AGREE WITH YOU
Ive been in France twice this year, 4 times last year. The issue they have an issue with Foreign Companies & IllegalLabor.
Spend, spend, spend, kick the can, give the bill to the future. What happens then when the future arrives and you are not able to pay the bill? What then? Look at Spain and you see the beginnings of what then. America. Are you watching and learning? Or are we still content to just kick the can.
The US did not reach 1 trillion dollars of debt until 1982, 206 years after declaring independence from England. During this 206 years, we fought a revolutionary war, war of 1812, civil war, WWI, WWII, Korean war, Vietnam War, built infrastructure such as Interstate Highway system, Alaska Highway, and Panama Canal, and still did not go 1 trillion into debt until 1982. We now increase the debt by 1 trillion dollars in just nine months and it is getting worse.
Spain kicked the can and now they are in really deep trouble. We are headed there ourselves. It is not the president (not Bush, Clinton, Bush, Obama or prior) but congress that is spending us into oblivion and they are doing so to buy votes to support political parties. Vote for me and I will give you (fill in the blanks) and don't bother to pay for the promised benefits or tax cuts, just stick the bill to the future. That is congress. Be careful, because the future is coming with a vengeance.
We are going broke the route of Spain and others by creating "rights" that don't exist in the Constitution and Bill of rights.
The Constitution and Bill of Rights gives us the rights to Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Health care is not one of those rights. If we make health care a right, which is seemingly what congress is trying to do, then where does this adding of rights stop?
Obviously, good health depends on good diet, so I guess we have to make government financed or subsidized food part of the plan. We already do this.
Weather can be bad, so I guess we have to make housing a federally subsidized right as well. We already do this.
How about transportation? Well, I guess in the pursuit of happiness we will need transportation, so we should have federally subsidized transportation. We already do this.
We need to be educated in order to pursue happiness and health, so I guess the government should subsidize education too. We already do this.
We need industry so I guess we should subsidize industry. We already do this.
I could go on, but I will just stop there.
The new Bill of rights which we have given to ourselves now includes Life, Liberty, Pursuit of Happiness, Health care, Food, Housing, Transportation, education and subsidies to industry and agriculture.
If a country was to offer all of this, it would be hard to argue that that country was not a socialist country, however, the fact is we already offer ourselves all of this and more.
All of this is claimed to be paid for with those horrid wealth transfers within the evil tax code, but the truth is, the financing for these "rights" is really coming from kicking the can (aka Spain and others) and giving the bill to the future whose pursuit of happiness we have already destroyed. Oh well screw them. Ho hum. Not my problem is how most Americans think. That is sad indeed.
In my opinion, the real crime we are committing is not in providing social benefits to ourselves, but in not paying for those benefits as we consume them. In other words, congress is still saying vote for me and I will give you ... but Congress is not subjecting itself to the checks and balances of having to raise taxes to actually pay for the promises used to buy votes. We should not be pushing the cost of these programs to the future since the future is not able to vote to stop it, and the future is not benefiting from our consumption and deficits. Our doing this makes us no better than a thug in the night that steals from its victims.
Therefore, to me, Congress has become the organizer of massive theft from future generations with no plan to stop the theft, and congress is still trying to expand the "rights" by offering more and more in exchange for votes whether you are talking about an exemption from a tax, or an added benefit. It is all the same.
I now clearly understand the warning George Washington gave in his farewell address warning us about political parties. Old George was right on target and because of self serving political parties, I have lost all respect for congress, republicans and democrats alike and believe that our only hope is to fire them all and never re-elect anyone as they have all become political hacks serving political parties first and the country and the future and the consequences be damned.
Well damn congress. Fire Them All in 2012 and beyond.
This article is lame. Exactly what are the reforms being implemented in Spain that has the unions in a tizzy? Just how big are these sacrifices? Or are they really trivial by U.S. standards and those entitlement-minded Spaniards are just overreacting a wee bit.
More images available of Spain General Strike