20 February, 2012The Confederación Sindical de Comisiones Obreras (CCOO) and the Unión General de Trabajadores (UGT) reject changes to labour law in Spain and start continuous mobilization. On February 19, hundreds of thousands of people went to the streets in 57 cities in their first major show of anger over the reforms.
SPAIN: On February 19, in response to new labour law, which Spain's new conservative government argues are needed to cut the jobless rate of 22.85 per cent, the Confederación Sindical de Comisiones Obreras (CCOO) and the Unión General de Trabajadores (UGT) led protests in 57 cities gathering hundreds and thousands of people.
The unions are warning that the newly adopted labour law is unfair on workers, counterproductive for the economy and useless in creating jobs. It undermines unions in making it easier for companies to fire workers and pull out of collective bargaining agreements. According to the general secretary of the CCOO, Ignacio Fernández Toxo, "these events are a warning for the government to convene an open a negotiation process with the trade unions and employers in order to prevent an escalation of the deteriorating social climate in our country."
The general secretary of UGT, Cándido Méndez, said that the demonstrations organized by trade unions today is to offer "a broad democratic channel for our citizens and particularly the workers of our country, to express their dissatisfaction and rejection of the labour reform imposed by the Government of the Popular Party."
This reform strikes a blow to Spanish labour law and the CCOO and UGT will continue to respond with growing and sustained mobilization. The next action will take place on February 29 and is part of the European day of action organized by the European Trade Union Confederation.