12/09/2013 00:00
TW
0
STAFF REPORTER

PALMA
THE main unions in the Balearics said yesterday that although the general strike planned for 29th September is being held after Central Government has already approved sweeping labour market reforms, it believes that public support is necessary to stop further erosion of workers' rights.

The Secretaries of the General Workers' Union and the Workers Commission (CCOO), Lorenzo Bravo and Katiana Vicens went yesterday morning to regional government offices in Palma to lodge their official intention to hold a strike.

Bravo openly criticised Central Government who this week had passed new legislation governing employment contracts without the consensus of key union forces. Bravo said that the move was tantamount to an “attack” on workers' rights and that “serious damage” has been done to the labour market because of it.

He furthered that although the law has now been passed, it is not going to deter working people from taking their protests to the streets. Bravo was hopeful that the plight of the unions and jobless would continue to gain ground amongst society at large and that wide public backing would bolster the impending strike action.

Bravo made it clear that he was “truly surprised” that Spain's Prime Minister, Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, a “Socialist” could “knuckle under” to the demands of capitalism. Bravo claimed that Central Government had given in to pressure (from other European countries) and passed sweeping labour reforms “as if there had been no other choice.” In a couple of years, forecast Bravo, there will be between 12 and 14 million people out of work due to the restrictions now imposed on the labour market.

Katiana Vicens called on Central Government to “rethink” its action and reverse the tide of “its mistakes.” Another union leader, Biel Caldentey, supported the UGT and the CCOO yesterday by saying that the measures most recently passed into law by Madrid will only mean that the affects of the economic crisis “will have to be carried on the backs of the most vulnerable.” It is only strong public protest that will change the government's mind, declared Caldentey.