UNIONS UNITE FOR GENERAL STRIKE

SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE, Tuesday June 8 2010

EXCEPTIONAL trade union unity failed to ensure a big turnout in Tenerife for Tuesday's strike against public sector pay cuts.

by JAMES TWEEDIE

In a rare display of non-sectarian coordination, members of more than ten trade union federations took part in the general strike across public services.

They included the big national CCOO and UGT, the smaller anarchist CNT and CGT, the CSIF and ANPE, and regional federations Intersindical Canaria, FSOC, SEPCA, EA-Canarias and INSUCAN.

Police and judicial unions CEP, SUP, UFP and STAJ also joined the strike, which was supported by political parties such as the United Left (IU), social movement umbrella group Assembly for Tenerife (AXT) and pro-public health service campaigners ADSPC.

The dispute is over plans by the Socialist Workers Party of Spain (PSOE) government of prime minister José Luis Zapatero to cut public sector wages and pension rights in response to the economic crisis.

Despite the involvement of almost all unions, participation was low and the services appeared unaffected.

While there was a picket line at the University hospital in La Laguna, there was no evidence of the strike at nearby Candelaria hospital in Santa Cruz.

A demonstration of about 100 health service workers took place outside the ministry of health.

General strikes over similar austerity measures have paralysed Greece in the past month and brought public services in Portugal in the past month.

At six in the evening thousands of members of the various unions gathered in Santa Cruz' Plaza de los Patos before marching the short distance to the central government sub-delegation building in a sea of flags and banners.

Through slogans and speeches they voiced to their objection to being made scapegoats of a crisis they considered to be the fault of the banks.

The suspension of sectarian schism was short-lived however, as the CNT and CGT departed early on their own march to Plaza Candelaria, accompanied by FSOC, EA and AXT.

IU Canaries spokesman Ramón Trujillo blamed the low turnout for the strike on demoralisation amongst the working class amid an unemployment rate of around 30 per cent in the archipelago.

“Despite the gravity of the situation, many people are resigned to these cuts,” he said.

Mr Trujillo pointed out that Spain's public spending had dropped from 38 per cent of GDP to 20 per cent since the crisis began – a lower level than any of the 15 core European Union states except Ireland.

He said that the PSOE was lagging behind the conservative People's Party in the polls “because it is pursuing the same economic policies as the PP.”

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