Op-ed: Strike is legal, but poorly timed

The seventh general strike held today by Spain's biggest labor unions is as legal as it is untimely.

CCOO and UGT, two major labor unions, went to the strikes to defend the interests of workers whose rights, in their opinions, have been undermined by recently-approved labor reforms that are attempting to create jobs for the mid-term and build a more flexible labor market.

Today's strike attacked a labor system that is inefficient and stuck in the past century. An economic boon time subsidized several industries and fed a labor model, ultimately having a negative effect on competition and employment.

The result is more than 5 million Spaniards without jobs. Exorcising this demon is what the labor reforms are attempting to do.