Unions issue May Day alert to government over labor reform

Spain's two biggest trade unions, the CC OO and the UGT, used International Workers' Day on Sunday to question the effectiveness of labor reforms introduced last year by Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero's government and to demand a new approach to the economic crisis.

"They said they were going to create a favorable environment for the creation of employment and unemployment has continued rising," said UGT Secretary-General Cándido Méndez at the day's main demonstration in Valencia. "They said that these measures would inject confidence into Spanish society, and the despondency continues; they said this labor reform was going to improve the granting of indefinite contracts in a direct way and one year later there are 130,000 indefinite contracts fewer."

For his part, CCOO leader Ignacio Toxo identified a direct link between the number of people out of work and the recent labor cuts. "The unemployed don't fall from trees," he said, adding this year's May Day march has more motivation than ever. "We have 4,910,200 more reasons to demand alternative solutions," he said, referring to the number of people out of work recorded in the latest official figures- from the first three months of 2011.

Nearly 10,000 people joined Méndez, Toxo and the regional leaders of their respective organizations at yesterday's Valencia protest, marching under the slogan "Employment with rights, against the social cuts."

At the same time, 80 other similar demonstrations took place in towns and cities across Spain. In Barcelona, 40,000 people- according to organizers' figures- filled the Via Laitena between Urquinaona square and the cathedral in the biggest of 10 marches held in the Catalan capital. Regional CCOO and UGT secretary-generals Joan Carles Gallego and Josep Maria Álvarez used their speeches to criticize the Catalan government's announced spending cuts.