UNIONS WARN WAGE CUTS WILL SPARK A GENERAL STRIKE

MADRID
SPANISH companies must accept lower profits and higher earners should pay more taxes but attempts to cut wages to haul the economy from crisis will trigger a general strike, Spain's top union boss said yesterday. “I think the race by companies for profit got out of control during the Spanish economy's boom years, and today we are paying the price for that,” said Ignacio Fernandez Toxo, general secretary of the Comisiones Obreras union.

The head of Spain's biggest union, with more than a million members from across the economy, Toxo said he would call a general strike in response to any attempt to cut labour costs, which companies say they need to overcome the crisis. “If the business lobbies, particularly the CEOE (the main business group), were able to get any of their proposals on to the statute books, there would be a general strike called that very day,” he said in an interview.

The Socialist government is promoting talks between the biggest two unions and the CEOE in the hope of reaching a consensus on how the country can overhaul its economy.