Government goes on attack ahead of protest against labor reform

The conservative Popular Party on Friday sought to discredit Spain’s labor unions ahead of one of series of protest meetings against far-reaching reforms to the labor market.

The liberalization of the legislation governing the job market makes it cheaper and easier to fire workers without the need in certain cases to negotiate layoffs with labor representatives.

“The government respects the right to protest. But \[labor] leaders need to explain better why they are protesting,” Deputy Prime Minister Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría said after the regular Friday Cabinet meeting. “I ask those who protest to also take on board that they should represent all of those who do not have a job.”

Spain’s jobless rate climbed to 22.85 percent at the end of last year as the economy shrank again, with some 5.3 million people out of work.

“I understand that unions are protesting because of their reduced presence or power within the area of labor relations,” Sáenz de Santamaría said. “But we are also thinking about the rights of workers who are out of a job.”

On a day in which PP-supporting daily El Mundo published a report saying that the head of the Madrid section of the UGT union, José Ricardo Martínez, received 180,000 euros a year in his capacity as a director of Bankia, Sáenz de Santamaría called on labor leaders to make public what they earn. Martínez said his earnings went straight to the UGT’s coffers.

“The government has taken transparency on board. Unions that receive public subsidies should decide if the moment has come for them to do so for people and for their members,” Sáenz de Santamaría said.