In Spain, millions join strike to protest labor reforms

By Lauren Frayer, Los Angeles Times

5:20 PM PDT, March 29, 2012 

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-spain-austerity-strike-20120330,0,2796257.story

Confrontations erupt during the general strike, which
disrupted transportation and shuttered factories. The
new labor laws are part of Spain's austerity measures.


MADRID -- Millions of Spaniards stayed off the job
Thursday to protest new labor laws that allow companies
to opt out of collective bargaining pacts, reduce wages
and fire workers more easily.

The general strike stalled public transportation and
shut factories and schools across the country. Angry
confrontations erupted between hordes of protesters and
riot police officers, but no major violence was
reported.

It was the first such large-scale labor action against
the policies of conservative Prime Minister Mariano
Rajoy and the strongest public rebuke yet of his
austerity measures. In office for just three months,
Rajoy has focused on cutting spending to shrink the
country's yawning budget deficit and to meet European
Union rules on fiscal discipline, which previous
governments routinely flouted.

Rajoy is to unveil his 2012 budget Friday, including up
to $50 billion in cuts,Spain'sharshest yet. EU
officials and financial markets are eager for a
commitment to frugality by Madrid, afraid that the
long-running euro debt crisis might otherwise flare up
badly again and engulf the Eurozone's fourth-largest
economy.

But Spaniards are holding their breath for possibly
punishing cuts in welfare, education and healthcare,
hallmarks of the European welfare state that are now in
danger across the continent.

"Food, fuel -- all the prices are going up," said Carlos
Rodriguez, 50, an elevator mechanic on strike. "Now
with this labor reform, they can reduce our pay and
increase our hours. We don't agree with that."

Spain has already enacted rounds of budget cuts to tame
its deficit, but overspending by regional governments
forced Rajoy to announce recently that Madrid would
miss the deficit target it agreed to with the EU. Since
then, Spain's borrowing costs have flirted with modest
but worrisome increases, reinvigorating fear that the
country might have to seek a costly international
bailout, after similar rescues of Greece, Ireland and
Portugal.

Finance ministers of the Eurozone's 17 countries, which
use the euro currency, are scheduled to meet in the
coming days to discuss beefing up the region's bailout
resources. But many analysts say that the slightly less
than $1-trillion total being proposed is insufficient
to reassure investors that the big economies of Spain
and Italy can be saved from a default if borrowing on
the open market becomes too expensive.

Even the Netherlands, which has loudly preached the
virtues of fiscal restraint to its southern European
neighbors, is now struggling with the need for major
austerity measures. The Dutch coalition government has
been locked in negotiations for days over proposed
budget cuts and is teetering dangerously close to
collapse.

Hundreds of thousands of protesters packed town squares
across Spain on Thursday. In Madrid's central Puerta
del Sol plaza, hundreds staged a sit-in outside a
department store and cried "Shame!" at police manning
barricades that allowed store employees to cross picket
lines. "Without the uniform, you are one of us!" they
yelled.

Red union banners waved above the crowded square, along
with homemade posters depicting scissors with a red
line through them, to protest the budget cuts.

Spain's two largest unions organized the strike in
response to labor reforms approved by lawmakers this
month. Backers say the sweeping changes are needed to
modernize an antiquated labor system in which older,
tenured workers have jobs for life and younger people
are left struggling to get a foot on the employment
ladder.

But critics say the reforms unfairly favor employers
and will lead to a rise in the unemployment rate.
Nearly one in four members of the Spanish workforce is
jobless, and the rate is nearly 50% for people younger
than 25.

"If you lose your job, especially if you're over 40 or
45, it's very hard to find another one," said David Le
More, a spokesman for UGT, one of the organizing
unions. "So people fear a lot that with these new
conditions, they'll get fired, and new people with
lower-earning contracts will get their jobs."

Union leaders have set a deadline of May 1 for the
government to amend its labor reforms or face further
unrest.

Before the strike, polls showed that 30% of Spanish
workers planned to take part, but authorities did not
issue crowd estimates. Late Thursday, unions claimed
participation of 77% of all workers.

Most public transportation systems were running on
reduced schedules. Garbage collection was suspended,
and trash piled up on many city streets.

Frayer is a special correspondent. Times staff writer
Henry Chu in London contributed to this report.

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