Unions threaten general strike over cuts

SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE, Saturday December 18

CANARIAN trade union leaders vowed on Saturday to fight “tooth and nail” against government austerity measures.

by JAMES TWEEDIE

Speaking at a thousand-strong protest rally in Tenerife's capital Santa Cruz, CCOO general secretary for the island Mari Carmen Martínez threatened a further general strike following those in June and October this year.

The demonstration was part of a co-ordinated day of action by Spain's two largest trade union federations CCOO and UGT against cuts to public service budgets, job losses, pay reductions and plans to raise the retirement age to 67.

Some 2,000 people also demonstrated in Las Palmas, the capital of the neighbouring island of Gran Canaria.

Speaking from the bandstand in Plaza del Principe, UGT Tenerife general secretary Lidia Quintana said that the weakest members of society were being made to pay for the global economic crisis.

“We all have to tighten our belts,” she said, "not just the poorest.”

Ms Martínez added that political decision making had been transferred from elected parliaments to “the centres of finance.”

She warned that unions would “fight tooth and nail” against cuts to public services.

Regional nursing union SATSE and the Canarian Association for the Defence of Public Health (ADSPC) were joined the march through Santa Cruz from Plaza de los Patos.

The Canarian regional parliament will vote on a bill to cut health spending by almost 12 per cent on Monday December 20, with 2,000 nursing jobs under threat and pay cuts threatened for junior doctors.

The United Left party and the Communist Party of the People of the Canaries – which will contest next year's elections together under the banner of Somos Mas - Frente Amplio – and members of the local campaign Platform Against the PGO were also present.

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