Spain strike to vent frustration, but test is job reform

MADRID (Reuters) - Spain's public sector strike against a government austerity plan Tuesday will allow the country's unemployed to vent their frustration but the real test will come in response to labour reform to be unveiled this week.

Tuesday's work stoppage and planned marches, called after the government rammed through a plan to shave 15 billion euros (12.35 billion pounds) off the budget with public sector cuts, is a shot across the government's bows before unions receive its draft of much-awaited labour reform Wednesday.

Public sector workers face average wage cuts of 5 percent for this year and a freeze for 2011 as part of a plan to cut the budget deficit to 9.3 percent of gross domestic product this year, from 11.2 percent in 2009, and then to 6 percent in 2011.

"Tuesday's action is without a doubt a marketing exercise to gauge the support for a possible general strike," said University of Navarra political communications professor Carlos Barrera.

But many said it would be unwise to interpret too much about the overall mood towards the government's handling of the worst economic slump in decades from Tuesday's strike. Greece has seen mass strikes and protests over austerity measures imposed to combat a debt crisis there that has shaken the eurozone.

Around 2.3 million public sector workers will be affected by the wage cuts and the strike may see some walkouts at state-run schools and hospitals. At least minimum services will be offered in emergency care and fire services.

Public transport, mostly run by private companies, will go largely unaffected.

Several civil servants contacted in advance of the strike told Reuters they would not be observing the walkout.

"I rarely strike over money. My salary is paid for by everyone and I have a moral obligation to do my job," said Esther Gallego, laboratory technician at a Madrid hospital.

"I don't think wage cuts is the best solution, but these are tough times, and I'm not very keen to protest against this government ... I don't think the opposition (Conservatives) is the better option."

With Spain showing the first small signs of emerging from a deep recession in the first quarter, jobless numbers in the period were up to 20 percent.

Labour REFORM A DIFFERENT STORY

Carlos Alvarez, a non-unionised civil servant who works in the Science and Innovation Ministry, said he was not planning to strike but was concerned about labour reforms coming to a head this week.

"The labour reform will have to be looked at in detail, but I might strike anyway just to send a sign to the government that I don't agree with the way they are handling the crisis," Alvarez said.

Trade union members represent only 16 percent of the country's workforce, with membership highest among permanent contract holders in the public sector.

Spanish unions, who have been involved in talks over the reforms for months with no result so far, said they are ready to call a general strike if the reforms threaten workers rights.

Spain's socialist government has promised to unveil on Wednesday a first draft of a proposal to dismantle the two-tier system, which leaves many contract holders with no rights and others prohibitively expensive to lay off.

Spanish permanent contracts offer holders one of the highest severance pay packages in the developed world, of as much as 45 days per year worked, while temporary contracts offer just 15 days notice with no compensation.

Unemployed Spaniards with little chance of a permanent contract under existing terms are worried that labour reform will ease the firing of fixed workers without raising potential job security for everybody else.

Even if Tuesday's demonstration is well attended by public servants and some of these disgruntled jobless, a guarantee of minimum service in areas like public transport should make the effect of the strike on Spain's economy negligible.

"I don't think the strike will have any significant effect on second quarter GDP even if the turnout is high. A general strike would obviously have more economic and above all political impact," Capital Markets analyst Julian la Calle said.

(Additional reporting by Manuel Ruiz and Tracy Rucinski, Editing by Sonya Hepinstall, Jon Boyle, Ralph Boulton)