Court rules November strike was legal

Spain’s High Court in Catalonia (TSJC) has ruled that a strike on November 8 called by a pro-independence union was legal, and therefore dismisses complaints by an employers association which alleged that the mobilization was politically motivated and therefore should have been banned.

The strike was called at a moment of high political tensions due to the imprisonment of Catalan government members and the suspension of self-rule following a declaration of independence.

Officially, the Intersindical-CSC union called the strike in response to the “insecurity in the job market fostered by the successive labor reforms carried out in recent years,” also “the impoverishment of the working class,” and a Spanish government decree that made it easier for firms to leave Catalonia.

In a hearing last April, the Intersindical-CSC's lawyer alleged that all strikes have a political dimension. They nevertheless stressed that the one called last November was rooted in economic reasons.

Last November, the same court ruled that the work stoppage could go ahead. It was the second such protest in little more than a month, after the successful general strike on October 3 to protest the hardline tactics used by Spanish riot police during the October 1 referendum.

Spain’s main unions, UGT and CCOO, decided not to join the strike, arguing that the reasons for the stoppage are political, although both organizations called on the public to join the demonstrations. Òmnium Cultural and the Catalan National Assembly, two pro-independence civil society organizations, also called on people to join the strike.