The first major general strike in 14 years begins with housing as the axis of the protests

Spain is now entering the first major general strike in its last 14 years of history. Almost 23 million workers in the country are called to support the strikes called since midnight on November 11. An atypical mobilization, as even the unions recognize, for many reasons.

The first is the main leitmotif: housing, which has become the country's main problem for more than half of Spaniards and worries 87% of the population, according to the CIS. In just a decade, housing prices have skyrocketed by 91% and rental prices have increased by 80%, well above the 36% increase in salaries. This is the first major general strike for this reason, although the call includes other labor demands such as salaries and purchasing power to guarantee its legality.

The second is the moment in which it occurs and the recipient. This is the first general strike of Democracy that occurs during an electoral pre-campaign. The election campaign officially begins at midnight on November 13, just 24 hours after the strike ends. There is also no precedent for a massive general strike that is not directed against the Government or its policies, the common denominator of the large general strikes of recent decades.

The Executive defends that it is a strike against the opposition and calls for support while the central unions take aim at the employers, the 'rentistas' or public administrations in general. The business organizations threatened to challenge the strike, considering that it did not have a labor dimension and then joined the PP's request to call it off after the Urda railway tragedy, where 69 people died. The president of CEOE, Antonio Garamendi, pointed out that "blaming the opposition or businessmen" for the housing situation "makes no sense."

The third reason that makes this strike atypical is who is behind the mobilizations. Although the traditional unions (UGT and CCOO) have supported the protests and provided their structure in the workplace, the young Tenants' Union has been the original promoter of the protest, which has its original spark in the eviction and subsequent death of Maricarmen Abascal at the age of 87.

The first pickets, on Tuesday afternoon

The strike day began even before midnight. Late in the afternoon, a picket from the Tenants' Union broke into the Seguro Rental headquarters in Madrid. Almost at the same time, the leaders of UGT and CCOO were warming up at a meeting of informational pickets in Puerta del Sol, the epicenter of the mobilization for housing. "There is no salary that can support the price of housing," said Pepe Álvarez, general secretary of UGT in statements to the media. "I want to appeal to working youth, this strike has to do with the living conditions of young people for the coming decades," added Unai Sordo, his CCOO counterpart.

The star dish of the day will be the demonstrations that will be held in the main cities of Spain, most of them in the afternoon and marked by weather that seems unfavorable. The main march will run through the streets of Madrid and will start at 6:00 p.m. from Atocha, from where it will go to Plaza de España, after passing through Cibeles and along Gran Vía. Before, at 4:30 p.m., the unions will make an assessment of the follow-up of the mobilizations.

Electricity consumption data, one of the metrics that has traditionally been used to evaluate the monitoring of strikes, will be key to comparing the monitoring with other large mobilizations. The last two massive general strikes - those of March 29 and November 14, 2012 - caused a drop in electricity demand of 14 and 11%, far from the 34% that was registered in the 1988 strike against Felipe González's labor reform.

Another relevant factor when taking into account monitoring is that this is the first strike since teleworking became widespread after the pandemic. Many companies have given their employees the option of working from home or have directly decreed teleworking to avoid mobility problems that may occur.

The Madrid employers' association CEIM has stressed that work centers must open normally and have enabled an incident channel to communicate them to the Government Delegation. The organization urges companies to take note of workers who go on strike to suspend their salary and contributions during the day.

Minimum services

As is usual in strikes, public administrations have established a series of minimum services in essential activities such as transport, security, the Post Office or RTVE. In Cercanías, where the train drivers already held a strike day on Tuesday that paralyzed the network, the minimum services reach 75% of the workforce during rush hour and 50% the rest of the day, according to EFE. In High Speed ​​and long distance they are at 75%, in medium distance the obligation is 65% and in goods it is at 26%. In air transport, minimum services range between 52% and 85% depending on the route.