At least a thousand works councils, union sections and groups of delegates from all over Spain are participating in the partial strikes called this Wednesday by the CC OO and UGT unions in support of the Palestinian people and in protest against the Israeli attacks in Gaza during the last two years, the unions calling them. The first two partial strikes were held from 2:00 to 4:00 in the morning and from 10:00 to 12:00 in the morning, waiting for a third from 17:00 to 19:00. Throughout the day the centers plan to report on the specific follow-up of these protests. At the same time, this Wednesday the CGT union called a general strike, which launched its call once the call for partial strikes by CC OO and UGT was known. Hundreds of protesters with flags have blocked some of the main road arteries in Catalonia this morning.
Accessing the Catalan capital this morning has been complicated by the closure of the Ronda Litoral, at the height of the Zona Franca and Mercabarna. Added to this is the action on the A-2 highway between Sant Vicenç dels Horts and Castellbisbal (Barcelona), which has forced traffic to be diverted along the B-23 and has caused traffic delays of up to 15 kilometers at the entrance to Barcelona from Diagonal Avenue.
But the action of the pickets has caused problems in other parts of the Catalan road network. Traffic has been interrupted on the C-17 in Gurb and Manresa (Barcelona), on the C-25 in Manresa (Barcelona), on the C-31 in Vilanova i la Geltrú (Barcelona), as well as on the AP-7 motorway in Llinars del Vallès (Barcelona). The roads were reopened mid-morning, but the delays were longer due to the high level of traffic they usually endure. At midday, only the N-II remained closed in Mataró, according to the Catalan Traffic Service.
After the specific cuts, the pickets from Zona Franca and Mercabarna converged at 9:40 in the Ronda Litoral and marched along this road towards the center of Barcelona behind a banner that reads There is no peace without justice! Live Palestine Free (There is no peace without justice! Long live free Palestine) and singing proclamations for Palestine. The activists have joined the demonstration called by students and professors in Plaza Universitat.
This march – which has brought together some 7,500 people, according to the Urban Guard – has diverted its initial destination and headed to Sants station. The Mossos d’Esquadra keep the main Renfe station in Catalonia, from where the AVE departs, armored to prevent the entry of protesters, which has caused tension among travelers who wanted to access the building. Where they have agreed is in Girona, where several dozen activists have occupied the train tracks.
Although the first hours of the strike were mainly felt on the roads, the student pickets have also acted at the University of Barcelona or the Autonomous University, where they have cut off access to several faculties. “It is being an intense day of strike, with many pickets throughout the State,” indicates the general secretary of CGT, Miguel Fadrique. “We ask that relations with the State of Israel be definitively broken, that they be null and void, and that investment in arms by the Spanish State be reduced,” adds the union leader.
Protest in Madrid
In Madrid, at the start of the second range of partial strikes, from 10:00 to 12:00, union leaders Pepe Álvarez (UGT) and Unai Sordo (CC OO) have made their protest visible at the Niño Jesús hospital in Madrid. They have chosen that location to denounce the deaths of thousands of children in Gaza in recent months, in the hope that they will stop following the agreement recently signed between Hamas and the Israeli Executive. The Palestinian ambassador to Spain, Husni Abdel Wahed, also attended the protest, which brought together around 600 people according to the unions. “Thank you to Spain. You can feel proud to be on the right side of history,” said the diplomat.
“If the killing has been paralyzed, it has to do with the fact that the State of Israel was beginning to be isolated,” Sordo reflected. “You cannot give in to the pressure. This agreement, which would call for a ceasefire and nothing more, is little more than stopping murder. The agreed entry of humanitarian aid is already being breached,” added the general secretary of CC OO, who at the same time has demanded that “Spanish, European and global” unionism not resign itself to “the law of the strongest operating in the world.” Sordo has insisted that only through citizen pressure “can we stop the barbarism of these years, the systematic apartheid to which the Palestinian people have been subjected since the middle of the last century.”
The general secretary of UGT, Pepe Álvarez, has denounced that peace cannot be based on agreements “of absolute weakness.” He has criticized that Palestinians have been living for years “like rats, having to crawl into holes to escape the genocidal Netanyahu’s bombs.” He has stressed that the military de-escalation of recent days has to do with the mobilization of international public opinion. “It is thanks to the millions of people who have shouted that we need peace. We need a balance between a Palestinian State and that of Israel. This fight must continue to lay solid foundations for the future,” added the Ugetist leader, in a protest full of Palestinian flags.
CC OO and UGT have also demonstrated in Barcelona with a march that started from their respective headquarters towards the headquarters of the European Commission Representation on Passeig de Gràcia in Barcelona to demand “the urgent implementation of cooperation plans for Palestine.”
Court in Canal Sur
The union protest has been especially visible in Andalusia in the Canal Sur Televisión broadcast. The regional channel faded to black at 10:00, just after the broadcast of the program ended. Wake up Andalusia. RTVA reported in a statement, in which it apologized to viewers, that the interruption occurred as a result of monitoring the partial strikes called by CC OO and UGT.
On the other hand, the Ministry of Education has reported that the incidence of the strike on the teaching staff of public educational centers has been 0.1%. Where it is having the most impact is in transportation services. 50% of the medium and long distance commuter train service has been maintained, while on alternative lines the frequency has been reduced by 10%.
Two calls
CC OO and UGT announced on September 19 the call for this Wednesday, October 15. They launched the call shortly after an independent commission of inquiry appointed by the United Nations accused Israel for the first time of being responsible and in the midst of a ground offensive in Gaza City. On September 29, partial strikes in the Ministry of Labor. A few days later, on October 3, CGT registered with the ministry for a general strike for the same day as CC OO and UGT, October 15.
The two majority unions have around a million members each, compared to the , and together they have two-thirds of the representatives at the negotiating tables of the collective agreements, according to the . CGT is represented by 2% of the negotiators at those tables where employees’ working conditions are discussed.
