Spanish workers braved stormy weather to go on general strike in protest against the country’s housing crisis on Wednesday.
Unions reported 90% turnouts among dockworkers and carmakers, as millions downed tools three weeks before a snap general election. There were “total stoppages” at Volkswagen’s factory in Navarre and SEAT’s in Barcelona, organisers said.
Around 85% of meat industry workers, 82% of waste collection employees and 75% from the energy sector are also taking part, they added. In healthcare and social services roughly 38% are striking while 35% of postal service workers have also joined.
The 24-hour strike, Spain’s first in 14 years, is backed by the country’s two biggest unions, UGT and CCOO, as well as tenants’ associations fighting rising rents and evictions.
“We won’t stop until we transform this country’s housing model from top to bottom so that houses are for living instead of being at the service of the rentier minority,” said Alicia del Rio of the Madrid Tenants’ Union.
