Friday, July 13, 2012

Spain: third day of protests of public servants against guvernamental abuse

Tens of thousands of public servants have been protesting for the third consecutive day in Madrid and other cities of the Spanish realm against brutal economic and labor rights aggression by the government. The main aggressions are the loss of 7.14% of salaries (Christmas pay) and loss of the right to some six free days for personal affairs along the year. 

The government also announced other measures, including a rise of sales taxes (VAT) and a significant cut of unemployment benefits, cheered by one of the conservative deputies with the sentence: very well, very well... fuck them!

It must be noticed that these are not at all one-time cuts but cuts after cuts after cuts... and before more and more cuts to come... so it's just the tip of the iceberg. 

The protests, not always legal nor formally called, and often implying roadblocks and invasion of traffic lanes, have been called in some cases by means of anonymous tweets, while in other cases it have been the mainstream unions who called them. 

A general strike of public servants is expected, however the exact date is not yet known. 

An interesting episode was the conflict between police protesters rallied by WhatsApp and their colleagues of the riot squad near the Spanish Congress. Rumors of strong discontent inside the military police corps Guardia Civil (whose members, as soldiers, cannot legally join unions nor strike) also exist. 

References[es]: RTVE, Reuters, Tercera Información.


Update (Jul 14): at last six arrested in the evening marches (Naiz[es]).

No comments:

Post a Comment

Please, be reasonably respectful when making comments. I do not tolerate in particular sexism, racism nor homophobia. The author reserves the right to delete any abusive comment.

Comment moderation before publishing is... ON