Spanish strikes to disrupt freight transport
Tomorrow, the 29th March, a General Strike will be held in Spain which will see mass demonstrations that will severely interfere with city centre transport and air freight and passenger flights will be ‘significantly disrupted’ according to the UK Foreign Office.
The news of the strike comes after Spain’s two biggest unions announced their intentions to bring public transport and other services to a halt.
The strikes are scheduled to precede what is believed will be the most strict Spanish budget ever when it is announced on Friday 30th March, one day after the strikes, when the newly elected Conservative administration of Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy instigates economic measures he has already described as ‘very, very stringent’.
The ‘stringent’ budget measures are expected to mean over €50 billion reductions in outgoings. In addition public sector workers will be subject to pay freezes and privatisations and social spending cuts right across the board.
The entire country is likely to get involved with the strikes following the vote by the top two unions, Union General de Trabajadores and Comisiones Obreras. With unemployment currently at close to 25% in Spain, most of whom are young adults, the streets are expected to be packed with protesters. Everything from public transport to manufacturing will be affected.
The transport and logistics industry will suffer with factories closing, slowing manufacturing, and unpredictable action expected across ports and airports. In addition, Iberia’s pilots will hold their own strikes every Monday and Friday from the 9th April for at least a month to protest against the launch of the new budget airline Iberia Express.
Despite this series of expected industrial actions, the Government is unlikely to back down and divert from its instruction to cut expenditure or there will be no more money to prop up the country’s economy which is in a desperate position.