The first general strike in Spain in fourteen years is taking place with "unequal" monitoring depending on the autonomous communities, a greater impact in coastal areas and with flight cancellations and road closures in Barcelona and Madrid, where police charges have also occurred in the central food supply markets and in the depots of the Municipal Transport Company (EMT) of Madrid.
The first figures on the monitoring of the call have been offered by the two calling unions, CCOO and UGT, first thing in the morning with data from the night shift and until 7:00 in the morning. The deputy secretary general of the Internal Area of UGT, Rafael Espartero, has offered monitoring percentages ranging from 75% in Andalusia and Aragón to 41% in Extremadura or Castilla-La Mancha.
Adherence to the strike has been greater in large industries, especially in automobiles, petrochemicals, agri-food and metallurgy, with production stopped at the Martorell (Seat) plant and in Navantia (Ferrol), a 100% follow-up in Alcoa and around 20% in the night shift at Stellantis Vigo. En sectores como la logística, radicada en Illescas (Toledo) o Guadalajara, el seguimiento ha sido del 80%. According to Espartero, the protest is having a "great implementation in the Cantabrian Coast, the Mediterranean, Catalonia and Andalusia", mainly in coastal areas, more affected by housing.
With the information available at this time, energy consumption has been reduced by 10% until 7:00 in the morning, according to Red Eléctrica, which at 10:00 a.m. already reduced the drop to 6.64%. In statements to 'La Hora de la 1' on TVE, the general secretary of CCOO, Unai Sordo, highlighted that energy demand is at a level closer to that of a Sunday than that of last Wednesday, or that, in his opinion, it represents an "unequivocal sign that there is a relevant strike" in the first hours of the general strike day.
Meanwhile, the president of the CEOE, Antonio Garamendi, has assured that the decrease in consumption is "well below the 14 percent of the last general strike" and has described the call as a "political and official strike" due to the call that the Government has made for it. The confederal secretary of Organization of CCOO, Agustín Martín, has stressed that, if the incidence continues, the general strike will be a "success."
The CCOO spokesperson has denounced "abusive minimum services" by some autonomous communities, with "gross situations" such as that of Madrid, where the Superior Court of Justice has had to establish extremely precautionary measures, overturning those established in education, justice or transportation. Según el auto del tribunal, "los servicios mínimos eran de tal magnitud que impedían ejercer el derecho a huelga en Madrid".
Incidentes en piquetes en Galicia, Euskadi, Valencia o Madrid
La jornada ha arrancado también con varios incidentes. Se han producido atropellos a varias personas en un piquete en Galicia, Tarragona y Burgos; cinco detenidos, dos en Valencia, uno en Mercamadrid -por lanzar una valla a la policía- y otro en Zamudio (Vizcaya); and more than a dozen people injured as a result of injuries caused by the use of batons and pepper spray by the police in Mercamadrid and in the Fuencarral garages, both interventions in Madrid. In Valladolid the police have also charged to break up the protesters who were trying to prevent the circulation of buses after an early morning of picketing in industrial estates, cleaning companies and city buses throughout Castilla y León.
The information pickets have managed to cut off more than thirty points of the road network in Catalonia early in the morning, including the AP-7 motorway, the A-2 motorway and the B-10, as well as blocking access to the port of Tarragona and several industrial estates, according to the unions.
The delays have prevented some Renfe drivers from reaching the trains scheduled for the minimum services, so 13 of the 44 convoys that were going to operate have not been able to leave -5 of them finally did so late-, although the Generalitat government assures that the minimum services are being met.
In Madrid, the A-6 highway, at the access to Aravaca towards the capital, a group of protesters has blocked the road and is causing delays of several kilometers. Previously, on the A-5 highway, at the access to Madrid through Alcorcón, near San José de Valderas, another information picket blocked the road at around 6:40 a.m. for 20 minutes until they were dissolved by the Police.
Canceled flights and delays in trains and buses
Until 10 in the morning, the strike has caused the cancellation of 234 flights of the 4,529 scheduled in the Spanish airport network, which represents 5.16% of the total, according to sources from Aena to Europa Press. The airport manager recalls that the airlines that operate in their network rescheduled their flights and relocated passengers in previous sessions.
The Tenants' Union emphasizes that the call is directed against all governments responsible for housing, including progressive ones, both at the state, regional and local levels, against "rentism" and against employers. In an intervention on TVE, Valeria Racu, spokesperson for the Madrid Tenants' Union, asked that the public housing stock be paid for by the rich and large net worth, not the majority.
