strike

After two days of protests making Barcelona El Prat Airport being without cabs for several hours, taxi union representatives and the Metropolitan Taxi Institute – in charge of managing the sector – have agreed to eliminate the shift system and find another way to reduce the number of taxis on the streets. Taxi drivers have stopped all their protests and they will be using the previous system establishing two days of rest per week. The shift system had been implemented to better pair the availability of taxis to the real demand, which has decreased because of the recession. The system had been approved by Barcelona taxi drivers in a binding referendum. However, one week after its implementation, some of them protested stating that it had reduced their turnover.

Taxi drivers have protested against the new car shifts implemented as of last week. The new shift system affects all Barcelona taxis and it has been designed to reduce the number of cars on the streets in order to increase drivers’ profits by reducing the available taxis at a given time. However, some taxi drivers think the new shifts cause their turnover to drop. For this reason they have decided to protest by not serving Barcelona El Prat Airport or Barcelona Sants Station with cabs on Monday afternoon. The Metropolitan Taxi Institute, in charge of managing the sector, has already announced “talks” with taxi union representatives to “evaluate” the new system.

Staff members from Catalonia’s main hospitals, including Sant Pau, Vall d’Hebron, Clínic, Parc Taulí and Germans Trias i Pujol, carried out several protests on Wednesday. Some of these protests had already started a few days ago and might last a few days longer, such as spending the night in the hospital lobby. They are demonstrating to criticise the budget cuts affecting health centres and to defend the public healthcare system. Some of these hospitals are recognised at an international level for their top quality clinical and scientific research work.

The general strike called at European Union level to protest the austerity measures and support a new strategy to deal with the economic crisis will also affect Catalonia, 11 days before the Catalan elections. Despite coinciding with the official election campaign, unions in Catalonia called for a general strike, arguing that the date had been decided at EU level. The Catalan Government and the main unions have reached an agreement on the minimum services to be provided. Public transportation will work at 33% of its capacity at rush hours, but not at all for the rest of the day. Emergency rooms will work as normal and hospitals will continue to offer indispensable treatments and perform scheduled surgeries. Schools will have the presence of between 17% and 33% of the staff guaranteed. Catalan Police will deploy 9,000 officers to avoid any violence.

Chemists in Catalonia had called to go on strike on Thursday because the Catalan Government owed them two payments for publicly funded drugs. According to the Catalan Government, the payments were delayed as they depended on receiving the funds from the Spanish Government’s Liquidity Fund. The Spanish Government announced this week it was transferring €99 million to the Catalan Government to pay the chemists. However, on Wednesday the chemists decided to maintain Thursday’s strike “as a warning signal” for the uncertainty on future payments and because they have not received yet the promised payment.

The General Strike on March 29th ended without significant changes in the Spanish Government’s Labour Reform, but with a clear acknowledgement that there is growing social anger. The strike was unevenly supported in Catalonia. Unions talked about sector strike participation ranging between 97% and 57% and the Catalan Government about strike participations ranging between 24% and 10%. Minimum services worked as planned, without any significant incidents. Demonstrations took place in the main Catalan cities, with the largest in Barcelona. Isolated violent incidents were the only negative parts of what was a relatively calm day.

The metro strike organised by employees of Barcelona Public Transport (TMB) who were demanding a salary increase has been cancelled. The bus strike is still planned, although after the metro’s cancellation, bus workers would be also considering doing so. The strike was coinciding with the world’s main trade fair and conference of the mobile phone and mobile technology industry. However, it was not affecting taxis, tramways, airport buses, and commuter trains. The strike will only affect urban buses. The underground will be operating as normal. During rush hour buses will function at 50% of their capacity and the rest of the day at 20%.

Public employees have taken to the streets to put pressure on the Catalan Government during the negotiation of next year’s budget. The Government proposed 19 measures affecting public employees and aimed at saving €625 million in 2012. They include salary reductions, modifications in working conditions and review “of temporary staff”. Negotiations began on November 30th and, despite some temporary suspensions, they are on-going. The Catalan Government wants to close a deal as soon as possible, and unions want to keep negotiating until next year’s budget approval.

Students have protested against the Catalan Government’s measures intended to adjust university budgets. Protesters have criticised “privatisation”, with budget cuts and university tax increases. However, the Catalan Government denied these claims and said it had no intention of laying off 4,000 lecturers and researchers. As with other strikes, the figures presented by both sides are contradictory. Organisers talk about a “success” and stress that in some faculties classes were completely suspended. Nevertheless, official information states the uneven support of students for the strike action, ranging from 25% to 40% depending on the faculty.

The trade union organising the protest has said that 70% of doctors took part in the strike, while the Catalan Ministry of Health reduced the figure to only 20%. Doctors are protesting at the budget cuts in the Catalan healthcare system in order to decrease the public deficit, which included a 5% salary reduction. The doctor’s union called for a strike on November 15th and 16th, coinciding with the negotiations on the 2012 budget and the Spanish elections. The Catalan Government stated that the strike asks for unrealistic salary increases and considered it has “failed”. 20,000 medical consultations have to be postponed.

The strike threatened by Spanish airport staff was finally cancelled as an agreement was reached between the ministry and trade unions. Air Berlin announced a flight increase in Barcelona: 38 flights per week will link the Catalan capital with Düsseldorf. The Spanish Minister for Transport insisted that the tender process to manage the airport will be issued before the end of the year.

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