Unions and housing groups call on Murcia’s workers to down tools on November 11

Organisers say wages and rents are two sides of the same problem as a Region-wide general strike is announced

More than 700,000 workers in the Region of Murcia have been called to a general strike on Wednesday November 11, with organisers saying they want work, production and consumption to stop for the day.

The call came on Thursday October 22 at a press conference at Casa Minerva. It was made jointly by Comisiones Obreras, UGT and Intersindical, along with the Hermandad Obrera de Acción Católica (HOAC), the Plataforma de Afectados por la Hipoteca (PAH), the Sindicato de Vivienda de Murcia and No+Precariedad. “When the working class stops, everything stops,” said Jorge Molina of the Sindicato de Vivienda de Murcia. He added that struggling to get by is “not for lack of effort, nor because of bad personal decisions”.

The strike grows out of the housing protests that began with the eviction of 87-year-old Maricarmen Abascal from her Madrid home on September 23. CCOO general secretary Teresa Fuentes said it was born from those protests. In Murcia, organisers said between 25,000 and 30,000 people marched on Sunday October 4, while the Delegation of the Government estimated around 4,500.

The speakers kept coming back to the cost of living. PAH spokesperson Paco Morote said rents in the Region have risen by 38% in four years and purchase prices by 58%. Fuentes said Murcia has the third lowest wages in Spain, behind only Extremadura and the Canary Islands. “Having a job no longer guarantees a good quality of life in the region,” she said.

Pablo Rodríguez of Intersindical put it in household terms: “It can’t be that we spend more than half of our salary on rent and gas.” Father Joaquín Sánchez of HOAC went further, saying some workers do not even make it to the 20th of the month, let alone the end of it.

The organisations are calling for indefinite rental contracts, a halt to evictions, a drastic cut in rents, an end to speculative purchases and wealth taxes to fund public housing. Molina also objected to most homes being bought with cash. On pay, CCOO and UGT want rises of between 4% and 7% in collective agreements and a 7% increase in the minimum wage.

UGT general secretary Paqui Sánchez said the day is also meant to pressure employers in sectors with unrenewed agreements, such as private healthcare, metalworking, vegetable canning and butchers’ shops.

A general strike in November had already been signalled by the Sindicato de Inquilinas, which was in talks with the main unions at the time (housing protests article). It also falls during the election campaign, after President Pedro Sánchez announced on October 5 that Spain will vote on Sunday November 29.

The organisers believe mobilisation “can change the course of history”. Paqui Sánchez put it this way: “Great social advances have always come about through the unity of all workers and society as a whole.”

Image: Archive