As we said would likely happen just three weeks ago, Spanish unions have called a general strike against new Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy’s new easy-firing labor law, a general strike that will be held on March 29th. Spanish unions the CCOO and UGT say they have no alternative, after Rajoy’s party, the conservative Popular Party, are pushing through laws that make it easier and cheaper to fire workers.
Like most of us, the unions find it difficult to understand how this easy-firing labor law is going to improve the economy or help people get jobs. In fact, it will do nothing more than help big business make even bigger profits. Most of us can see that.
After announcing the general strike, UGT secretary-general Candido Mendez said, “This is the same government that said it would not raise taxes [but did] even during the investiture debate; this is the same government that said it wouldn’t make it cheaper to sack workers,”. And now they have.
Well…..those of us who would never have voted for Rajoy in the first place saw this coming. It’s surprising so much of Spain didn’t.
However, it’s unclear whether a union-organized general strike will have much of an impact. Many Spaniards have already said they really don’t see how a strike will do much good, as they haven’t in the past, and Mariano Rajoy says the new labor laws will be implemented anyway.
Again, we predict, Mariano Rajoy will be one of Spain’s shortest lived Prime Ministers (political career-wise, we mean). We honestly doubt he will still be in office by this time next year. He has little clue what he’s doing, except of course in pandering to big business and, like most conservatives, he’s very good at that.