CEOE drops plan to challenge 11 November general strike over housing before it happens

Employers drop the pre-strike challenge

The Spanish employers' confederation CEOE has decided not to challenge the general strike set for 11 November before it takes place, sources in the organisation told Europa Press and RTVE. The decision reverses a position taken days earlier by CEOE president Antonio Garamendi, who had confirmed that the employers would contest the walkout in court. CEOE now says it will monitor the day and decide on further steps depending on how it unfolds, so legal action remains possible afterwards. The organisation has expressed hope that the strike will be peaceful and civic, while stressing that the right to work and guaranteed minimum services also exist.

Garamendi's electoral argument

Garamendi had described the strike as electoral rather than labour-related. CEOE and Cepyme had already called it 'inadmissible' in a statement issued on 6 October, arguing that it aimed mainly at housing legislation and budget changes. The employers say they are the payers or the harmed in a strike over a problem they do not consider their responsibility. Speaking at an event of the self-employed association ATA, Garamendi put his objection this way.

We have upcoming general elections and yet, for the first time in Spain's history, we have an electoral strike.

Unions tie the strike to wages and housing

UGT and CCOO called the strike to guarantee access to decent housing and to demand a recovery of wages through a state-level agreement with CEOE. Union leaders Pepe Álvarez of UGT and Unai Sordo of CCOO have asked the employers to negotiate the broader state collective bargaining agreement (AENC), which they want to use to lift wages by 4% to 7% a year over the next three years. On 22 October the unions also warned companies against using teleworking as 'modern strikebreaking' during the 11N walkout. In an interview with EL PAÍS two weeks earlier, Álvarez argued that a strike of this kind cannot legally be declared political. Sordo had predicted the employers would not challenge the strike because there was no legal basis for it, and he dismissed the dispute as a row that lacked substance.

This is an absolutely absurd controversy.

Basque government criticises the strike

In the Basque Parliament in Vitoria, lehendakari Imanol Pradales of the PNV criticised the strike and said the Basque union majority was using it to attack his government. He argued that the unions were targeting the Basque and Navarrese governments while no one demanded accountability from Spain's government, and he called the timing of the call 'bewildering'. Pradales recalled that ELA, LAB and other unions had held their own general strike on 11 March this year, and noted that the Basque unions were now joining a Spanish strike for the first time in years. Jon Hernández of IU, the only representative of the left coalition Sumar in that debate, openly backed the call and described housing as a popular outcry. Pradales said that organisations had full freedom to mobilise and citizens could choose whether to follow the strike.

What comes next

The general strike is scheduled for 11 November. CEOE has said it will monitor the day and adopt the measures that are appropriate, and it has not ruled out a court challenge once the strike has taken place. The unions want the employers to sit down and negotiate the AENC agreement, and they tie that demand to the same 11N mobilisation.