Alejandro López
Workers from the state-owned Renfe corporation, which operates freight and passenger trains, along with pilots from Ryanair and ground staff of Iberia airlines paralyzed Spain’s transport system over the weekend. There is deep, growing anger among workers over the massive growth of social inequality and worsening working conditions. An estimated 40,000 travelers were affected by strikes in the railways and airlines which began last Friday.
On Sunday, Renfe cancelled 170 trains on a new day of partial strikes called by the General Confederation of Labour (CGT), calling for an increase in Renfe’s workforce and, in addition, that the company apply the reduction of the workweek to 37.5 hours.
This is just the latest of five railway work stoppages this summer, adding to those that already took place. On August 1, Renfe had to cancel a total of 1,152 trains, followed two weeks later with the cancellation of 950 trains on August 14. Last Friday, it cancelled 360 trains.
Under the control of the acting Socialist Party (PSOE) government, Spain’s Public Works has imposed brutal minimum services to break the strike. The government demanded that workers must guarantee minimum services of 75 percent of commuter trains running during rush hours and 50 percent at other times. For long-distance high-speed trains, 78 percent of services had to be guaranteed and on mid-range, 65 percent of trains.
On the same day, Ryanair cancelled six flights in Spain due to a cabin crew strike protesting the Irish airline’s plans to close its bases next January in Las Palmas, Tenerife South, Lanzarote and Girona, as well as the Portuguese base of Faro. This will affect hundreds of jobs. It is the first of 10 strikes called by the unions. Meanwhile, the Spanish Ryanair pilots’ union has also announced strike action against the closure of Ryanair’s bases that could see 100 pilots lose their jobs.
The PSOE’s Public Works Ministry has also acted ruthlessly, setting minimum service levels of 60 percent of the flights to international destinations with a flight time of five hours or more, and 35 percent of flights within the Iberian peninsula with a flight time of less than five hours.
This weekend, ground crew from Spanish flag carrier Iberia and Vueling, a part of British Airways-owned International Airlines Group, launched planned strikes at Barcelona’s El Prat, Madrid’s Adolfo Suarez Barajas Airport, Bilbao Airport and Mallorca’s Palma Airport.
Workers are calling for an end to job precariousness and temporary work, which affects 50 percent of the workforce. They are also protesting staffing levels, which are not keeping pace with the growth of activity at the airport, a lack of permanent contracts, and work overload caused by the company’s abuse of mandatory overtime and the reorganization of shifts and schedules to prevent some employees working up to nine consecutive days.
Vueling had to cancel 92 flights at the Barcelona airport this weekend, with 14,000 passengers affected. The Ministry demanded 80 percent of Iberia Airport Services employees meet minimum service requirements.
The strikes across Spain’s transport system are part of a global upsurge of the working class. It includes mass strikes in Portugal and Poland, “yellow vest” protests in France, and mass movements calling to bring down military dictatorships in Algeria and Sudan, and a global wave of strikes and protests from Hong Kong to US teachers and autoworkers. In each case, the ruling class, isolated and deeply unpopular, is reacting to this upsurge by moving rapidly to the right, towards openly fascistic-authoritarian forms of rule.
The exorbitant minimum services imposed in Spain, amounting to a de facto ban on strikes, is an initial indication of the attacks the PSOE is preparing on workers and youth. The PSOE has already indicated that it is committed to strengthening the army and police-state machine and imposing further attacks on the working class.
The PSOE intends to abolish the annual automatic pension increase based on the consumer price index, setting the stage for the real value of pensions to be slashed by inflation over the years. In the next four years, the PSOE also intends to raise taxes disproportionately affecting the workers. It also wants to implement the “Austrian backpack,” forcing workers to pay into a “personal savings fund” instead of receiving severance pay from employers.
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