Spain's two major labor unions are giving serious thought to holding another general strike in 2013. This strike would be the third protest against the government's reform agenda since Rajoy took office.
This time, the argument that they will use to try to mobilize the masses is that the unemployment level in Spain will hit six million in the first quarter of 2013. This level of unemployment has never been witnessed in the history of Spain. Numbers from the labor unions UGT and CCOO as well as information from the benefits program EPA show that Q3 2012 saw jobless numbers rise to 5,778,100 as Social Security contributions fell by 367,122 during the same time period. Because the spread between EPA numbers and Social Security filings are usually minimal, the labor unions predict that Spain will have more than six million unemployed workers before April.
Despite the seriousness of this figure, the unions don?t have a solid argument for taking to the streets yet again, especially bearing in mind that only 21.4% of Spanish citizens supported the 14N movement according to the National Statistics Institute. Not only was the second general strike against Rajoy a resounding flop, but it also failed to change the government's agenda at all, which was the main goal of the strike.
The timing of another strike could not be worse, because the economy continues to show signs of weakness and the high economic cost of another strike would only worsen the situation. If UGT and CCOO hold to their strategy of confronting the government with protests, then they will continue to fail and erode the image of a country that needs to project an image of stability in order to get out of some tough economic times.
