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Workers in Southern Europe Synchronize Anti-Austerity Strikes Workers in Europe Synchronize Anti-Austerity Strikes
(about 11 hours later)
MADRID — For the first time since the start of the euro crisis, labor unrest took on a European dimension on Wednesday as Spanish and Portuguese workers coordinated a general strike while unions in Greece and Italy also planned protests and work stoppages. MADRID — Workers across Europe mounted coordinated protests on Wednesday against government austerity policies in a time of economic malaise.
Spain’s heavy industry and large parts of the transportation network were disrupted early on Wednesday by the second general strike since the Popular Party of Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy came to power last December. In Spain and Portugal, workers staged general strikes. Unions in Greece, Italy, France and Belgium joined in protests and work stoppages to show solidarity with striking workers elsewhere.
The Spanish strike was called by unions after Mr. Rajoy presented a tough austerity budget for next year but it also comes after the country’s jobless rate recently reached a record 25 percent. Portugal faces a similar situation of soaring unemployment and budget cuts to comply with the terms of a $100 billion bailout agreement reached last year with international creditors. The breadth of the demonstrations, which affected scores of cities, reflected widespread unhappiness with high unemployment, slowing growth and worsening economic prospects in Europe, and the resistance that European governments confront as they push plans for more belt tightening. Occasional clashes with police were reported in some cities.
Early on Wednesday, Spanish police reported that 32 people had been arrested and 15 injured – including five policemen — during violence on picket lines across the country but the government said the strike had so far not led to major disturbances. Many shops, banks and retailers were open for business. Among those striking on Wednesday were railroad workers in Belgium; airline, autoworkers and teachers in Spain; civil servants in Italy; and transit workers in Portugal. Union leaders called the coordinated actions historic.
While about 700 flights in and out of Spain were canceled Wednesday, Madrid and other airports were still functioning. The strike coincided with growing uncertainty about the future of Iberia, the national airline, after management announced this month that the airline needed to lay off a quarter of its workers to survive. Government officials generally played down the disruptions caused by the actions and said their countries had no alternative but to cut spending and reduce their deficits. The Spanish economy minister, Luis de Guindos, said his government “is convinced that the path we have taken is the only possible way out.”
Even so, Spain’s heavy industry and large parts of its transportation network were stalled by the general strike, the second since the conservative prime minister, Mariano Rajoy, gained power last December. With unemployment in Spain at 25 percent, Mr. Rajoy has presented a tough austerity budget for next year.
The Spanish police reported that 82 people had been arrested by late afternoon, and 34 were wounded, including 18 police officers, mainly during violence on picket lines across the country, but also following clashes in central Madrid.
About 700 flights to and from Spain were canceled Wednesday, adding to growing uncertainty about the future of Iberia, the Spanish national airline. Its management announced this month that Iberia needed to lay off one-quarter of its workers to survive.
The strike also severely disrupted automobile production at Spanish factories owned by Nissan, Volkswagen and other carmakers. With security guards and other workers off the job in Granada, one of Spain’s biggest tourism attractions, the Alhambra palace, was closed to visitors.
In Portugal, which faces similar economic and fiscal problems to those of Spain, the Lisbon subway was closed on Wednesday. More than 130 demonstrations were planned for cities in France, where President François Hollande described the economic situation as “serious” on Tuesday and called on labor unions to strike a “historic bargain” to ease regulations on hiring and firing of workers.
In a joint statement, five leading French unions expressed their “strong opposition to these austerity measures that are plunging Europe into economic stagnation and recession” and that “threaten the European social model.” Marches in Paris, Marseille, Lille and Lyon each drew a few thousand participants.
In Italy, civil servants went on strike and national transportation workers — although not airlines — stopped work for four hours.
Mass protest marches that started in the late afternoon turned into violent clashes between the police and groups of protesters near the parliament houses in Madrid and Lisbon, as well as in Barcelona, Spain, and there was a prolonged confrontation between students and police officers along the banks of the Tiber in Rome.
The clashes continued for several hours after the end of the official protest marches in Spain’s two largest cities. In Madrid, police used rubber bullets against protesters who set bins on fire and threw bottles and stones at security forces. In downtown Barcelona, some protestors set two police vehicles on fire, while others smashed the glass front of the Palau de la Música, a concert hall whose financing has been at the center of an ongoing corruption case involving some local politicians.
Workers across Greece, where the economy is contracting sharply, stopped work for three hours on Wednesday, and a solidarity rally in Athens drew about 2,000 people, some holding French, Spanish, Portuguese and Irish flags, and others carrying banners calling for a write-off of Greek debts. In contrast with larger and more turbulent rallies in recent months and a general strike last week, Wednesday’s demonstrations were peaceful.
In Spanish cities like Valencia and Murcia, some of the workers’ ire was directed not just at the government but also at the country’s banks, whose mountain of bad loans forced Madrid last June to request a bailout from the European Union that obliged the country to cut public spending deeply. Protesters tried to block access to some bank offices on Wednesday.
In Barcelona, clutches of demonstrators burned tires at the main wholesale food market early in the morning to try and block supplies to the city’s shops. Public transportation ground to a halt.
Ignacio Fernández Toxo, the head of one of Spain’s two main unions, Comisiones Obreras, said that the coordinated strike action across the Iberian Peninsula, as well as work stoppages in other parts of Europe, amounted to “a historic moment in the European Union movement.”Ignacio Fernández Toxo, the head of one of Spain’s two main unions, Comisiones Obreras, said that the coordinated strike action across the Iberian Peninsula, as well as work stoppages in other parts of Europe, amounted to “a historic moment in the European Union movement.”
However, support for trade unions has dwindled in recent years because of their failure to prevent the surge in unemployment and controversy surrounding the unions’ reliance on government subsidies rather than contributions from members. In Spain, only about 16 percent of workers are unionized. But support for trade unions has been dwindling in recent years, in part because of disillusionment over their failure to prevent job losses and austerity policies and their reliance on government subsidies rather than members’ dues. In Spain, only about 16 percent of workers are now unionized.
In fact, the strike could be overshadowed by protests in Madrid and other cities scheduled for late afternoon. “The unions have long shown that they won’t really bite the hand that feeds them,” said Carlos Martin, owner of a Madrid bakery. “Striking is a kind of theater performance that unions want to maintain.”
“I can afford to protest but not to lose a day of pay,” said Carlos Sánchez, a mechanic at Disancar, a small Madrid garage. “Striking at this stage in the crisis brings absolutely nothing to the workers.” Some workers, too, were skeptical of the unions’ strategy. “I can afford to protest but not to lose a day of pay,” said Carlos Sánchez, a mechanic at a Madrid garage. “Striking at this stage in the crisis brings absolutely nothing to the workers.”
Still, the strike severely disrupted production across the Spanish automotive sector, with workers staying away from factories owned by Nissan, Volkswagen and other carmakers. But Daniel, a 36-year-old subway driver who took part in the transit strike in Barcelona, said he was protesting against policies that were destroying Spain. “I am worried about the future,” he said. “We are fighting because they don’t stop cutting everything.”
In Italy, civil servants went on strike and national transportation workers – although not airlines — called for a four-hour halt on Wednesday afternoon. Students demonstrated throughout the country, with rallies in Turin and Rome.

Reporting was contributed by Elisabetta Povoledo and Gaia Pianigiani from Rome; Nicola Clark from Paris; Da Bilefsky from Barcelona, Spain; and Niki Kitsantonis from Athens.

In Greece, the scene of the most violent social unrest in Europe since the start of the debt crisis, unions called a three-hour work stoppage starting at noon.
Union workers elsewhere also staged a number of protests and stoppages as a show of solidarity with their southern European counterparts.
A walkout by Belgian rail workers severely disrupted services on the country's Thalys high-speed rail line and halted all its connections to Germany, the rail company said Wednesday.
More than 130 demonstrations were planned across France, with two of the country's biggest unions — the Confédération Générale du Travail, or CGT, and the Confédération Française Democratique du Travail, or CFDT — organizing a joint march through the streets of Paris, the first such protests since President François Hollande took office in May.
In a joint statement, five leading French unions expressed their "strong opposition to these austerity measures that are plunging Europe into economic stagnation and recession" and "threaten the European social model."
Spanish unions disagreed with the government and employers over the impact of the strike Wednesday morning. While Mr. Toxo and other union leaders called the strike a success, Juan Rosell, the chairman of the main employers’ organization said that the walkouts appeared to be “not very important” and most likely less disruptive of the last general strike in March, based on electricity data and other early indicators. Red Eléctrica, operator of the national electricity grid, said that consumption was down 18.6 percent at 8 a.m. compared to a normal working day.
Nonetheless, Mr. Rosell called the decision to strike “a torpedo against recovery.”
Indeed, it comes as Mr. Rajoy is struggling to convince investors that Madrid will not require further European rescue funding and will meet budget deficit targets agreed with its European counterparts, in spite of a deepening recession.
In Valencia, a group of strikers tried to block access to the main office of Bankia, a giant lender that the government was forced to nationalize last May because of bad loans, triggering a crisis that forced Madrid to request more than $100 billion in European bailout funds a month later. More recently, banks provoked a public outcry over the evictions of families unable to meet mortgage payments.

Elisabetta Povoledo contributed reporting from Rome, Nicola Clark from Paris, and Niki Kitsantonis from Athens.