CCOO and UGT evaluate a general strike for housing after the fall of the decrees

Mobilization and struggle. This is what the class unions promise. And general strike? They don't rule it out. CCOO and UGT are evaluating all the possibilities to keep the pulse on the streets in defense of housing, after the Congress of Deputies overturned the Maricarmen decrees yesterday and waiting for the eventual electoral scenario to be cleared. Of course, they are doing it with surgical precision. A call of this caliber not only represents a very delicate step for union organizations at a political level, but also requires a fine legal framework. The bosses have already warned that they will be vigilant, which is why Unai Sordo and Pepe Álvarez are measuring every movement.

The Tenants' Union, which in eight days has managed to mobilize more politicians for housing than in eight years of Pedro Sánchez's Government, is putting pressure on the Workers' Commissions and the General Union of Workers to call a general strike at the national level. They do it because, although in Spanish legislation there is no button that only Sordo and Álvarez can press, in practice it is the large union confederations that have the power and organizational capacity to make a call of that scope. The pressure started in the middle of the week and intensified on Friday after the decrees fell.

Sordo and Álvarez picked up the gauntlet, but with reservations. In statements to the press, both committed to maintaining the "fight" and "mobilization" for housing, taking into account the "response in the street" that will be palpable this weekend in the protests called throughout Spain. They announced that both unions are going to evaluate their options jointly, as well as with other union organizations and citizen movements, and that in the coming days they would specify their actions before public opinion, after consulting their management bodies.

However, when asked directly about the possibility of calling a general strike, the UGT leader significantly diluted that means of protest: "Strikes are easy to announce and register, but it is a little more complex to do them," he stated. But he didn't close the door completely. Nor did Sordo. Union leaders are aware of the political relevance of a call of these characteristics. And they are also aware that strikes are strictly regulated and any mobilization that does not comply with the established requirements will be considered illegal.

Royal Decree-Law 17/1977, of March 4, on labor relations establishes that a strike is illegal "when it is started or sustained for political reasons or for any other purpose unrelated to the professional interest of the affected workers." And this is what is generating doubts within the unions. "Political strikes are prohibited," a union leader reiterates in conversation with this medium, stating that "all types of measures are being considered," including "a 24-hour general strike for housing."

The situation is serious, but CCOO and UGT know the law well. "We have to find a labor fit to prevent it from being illegal," says another union member. Sordo himself spoke yesterday about "promoting days of mobilization and struggle that must have a labor dimension." And how is this articulated? "Linking the protests to salaries, to the fact that salaries do not cover housing costs," say the sources consulted in the unions. "It can be related to the Agreement for Employment and Collective Bargaining (AENC) that the employers' association is blocking," they suggest.

The CEOE already warns that they will be vigilant. Asked about the possibility of CCOO and UGT calling a general strike, its recently re-elected president, Antonio Garamendi, issued a warning: "Strikes are carried out as a consequence of a labor conflict and this is not." "We will have to see if it really fits with the law or not," he warned the unions.