A million Spanish workers marched in cities across the country on Feb. 19 to protest the new administration’s attempt to strip away the rights of organized labor. The conservative government has passed austerity measures that would make it easier for companies to fire workers and withdraw from collective bargaining agreements.
Starting their resistance in southern Cordoba, the CCOO and UGT (Spain’s most prominent unions) organized protests in 57 cities. Many protesters carried coffins that read “Negotiation and collective bargaining, RIP.”
The conservative government passed the anti-union legislation earlier in the month under the guise of combating unemployment. The anti-worker laws allow companies with declining revenues to withdraw from collective bargaining agreements and easily manipulate employees’ tasks and schedules.
“Workers who’ve got jobs now are worried these reforms will make it easy to lose them, and in current conditions, those who don’t have work are going to find it impossible to get a job,” said 58-year-old office worker Manuela Silvela.
