The street speaks out

On Sunday a tidal wave of people inundated the streets of more than 50 Spanish cities to demonstrate against the labor-market reforms that Mariano Rajoy’s center-right Popular Party (PP) government has enacted by decree. Convened by the labor unions UGT and CCOO, Sunday’s demonstration was the first major public expression of the unease and demoralization that the reforms have generated among all kinds of wage-earners, the unemployed, and those who are seeking their first job, for whom the future is similarly gloomy.

The general strike that the unions called in September 2010 against Zapatero’s far milder labor-market reform — which was indifferently observed — weakened both the government and the unions. This time, the union leaders have decided on a sound and moderate strategy. They are not speaking about a general strike, but have issued a warning to the government with these demonstrations, whose success surprised the organizers themselves. Sunday’s marches are to be followed by other protests, in what is meant to be an expanding series. An angry “street” is not what is needed in Spain’s crisis-hit economy. The Rajoy government, then, ought to sit up and take notice.

For the moment, the unions are asking that the government deign to negotiate with them and with the employers on the text of the reform to change it. “We want a correction, not confrontation,” says Cándido Méndez, the UGT leader. This is a message, strengthened by Sunday’s demonstrations, that the government would be ill-advised to ignore. In fact, the recent agreement between the employers association and the unions on wage moderation and flexibility in the application of collective bargaining agreements showed that common-sense solutions are possible. To assert, as the government does, that the unions are rejecting the reform merely because it diminishes their capacity for negotiation, is too simplistic. There has to be a place for dialogue.

Rajoy does not seem to be interested. He says he is prepared to negotiate final touches, but nothing substantial. On Sunday, at the closure of the PP congress in Seville, he again argued that the reform is “fair” and “necessary” to give opportunities to the unemployed, especially to young people who are yet to enter the labor market. But the message is contradictory, since he also mentioned that worse is to come, and that the destruction of jobs will go on. For how long?

Spain needs labor-market norms that will facilitate the creation of jobs when the economy is growing — a situation that is not yet in sight. Of course, it is debatable whether the reform is a sound one or not. What is unquestionable is that is has generated a climate of insecurity among wide swathes of the public. This is where the unions have a relevant role to play, in spite of the disdainful attitude of sectors of the PP. Perhaps this persistent work of undermining may have an unexpected result: the resurrection of the Spanish labor unions.