The strike was called after the Spanish goverment made some reforms to the labor laws, according to what friends have told me. However, those reforms were made two months ago, and just now the population is taking action... To be honest, I don't understand how effective a strike can be when it happens months after the fact, but that is the custom here.
This isn't the first strike I've seen during my three years in Granada. Truck drivers have gone on strike, bus and taxi drivers often go on strike, teachers, airtraffic controllers, civil workers, garbage men (or sanitation specialists, if you prefer) and even students have gone on strike. The last example is the one I have the hardest time understanding. Perhaps univeristy students have their reason to strike, to protest against the reform the university system wants to make which would make it more expensive for students, but highschoolers? Children 13 and 14 years old? Do they even have the right to strike? In Spain, they do.
I also don't understand what the strikes accomplish. Nobody works on that day, they have demonstrations in the street, they lose their pay for the day, and then the next day they go back to work as if nothing happened, and I don't know if the union leaders or governement really take into account the fact that a large number of people protested against their new laws and reforms, because in the end, the laws and reforms don't seem to have changed.
Back to the topic at hand, today's general strike. Well, the general strike is suppossed to solidify all workers of every salary bracket, every field, unions and non unions against the governments reforms. In an act of solidarity everyone was to close their businesses, offices and shops and workers take to the streets with their banners and posters to cry out to the government in protest of this outrageous reform.. I'll tell you, I just went to the grocery store, it was open, many people working. On my walk to the grocers more than half the shops on the street were open. Friends who work in offices say that their offices are technically closed for the day to show the appearance of being on strike, but the workers are still in
En fin, I think it is more of an inconvenience for the general public, as bus services and flights are delayed or canceled, teachers cancel classes and parents, if they work, must find a way to have their children looked after for the day, and a lot of work must be put off until the next day. What can you do, that's how the Spanish are... some things I don't think I'll ever fully understand.
