Unions Call a General Strike for November 11 Right in the Middle of the Election Campaign
CCOO and UGT have called the first joint general strike in fourteen years for November 11, just days before the official campaign begins for the snap election set for November 29.
Spain's two biggest unions, CCOO and UGT, have called a general strike for November 11 centered on the housing crisis, the first they have jointly backed in fourteen years. Regional unions including CIG in Galicia and ELA and LAB in the Basque Country have also joined the call.
The date is no coincidence: the stoppage will take place just hours before the official campaign for the snap general election, set for November 29, begins at midnight between November 12 and 13. That vote follows Congress's rejection of the government's housing decree, a parliamentary defeat that led Pedro Sanchez to announce the early election on October 5.
The unions have framed the strike as a way to link demands for affordable housing with concerns over wages and the rising cost of living, and are also presenting it as a political opportunity for the left in the middle of the campaign. Business group CEOE reacted sharply, calling it "unacceptable" to try to shift onto companies, their workers and economic activity as a whole "the cost of a pressure tactic directed at the government," and insisted the demands behind the strike "are not, in essence, employment related."
The PP and Vox have sharply attacked the unions backing the strike, at a moment of peak political tension just ahead of the campaign. For its part, the government has largely limited itself to Pedro Sanchez's statement that "the only thing we can do as a government is respect that constitutional right," referring to the right to strike.
