The Associated Press: Spaniards wage nationwide strike against austerity

Spaniards wage nationwide strike against austerity

By CIARAN GILES, Associated Press – 2 hours ago 

MADRID (AP) — Spanish workers livid over labor reforms they see as flagrantly pro-business staged a nationwide strike Thursday and tried to bring the country to a halt by blocking traffic, closing factories and clashing with police in rowdy demonstrations.
Labor unions claimed massive participation in the 24-hour stoppage but the government and employers' associations said the strike was nothing more than a nuisance for the country.
As the protests heated up in major cities, scuffles broke out between police and strikers. Hooded activists hurled rocks at bank offices and store fronts and set fire to street garbage containers in northeastern Barcelona, the second-largest city.
By midday, a total of 58 people were detained and nine were injured, Interior Ministry official Cristina Diaz said.
Riot police vans could be seen in many streets and squares in nearly every city as tens of thousands of union supporters were expected to take part in more demonstrations in the evening.
The workers are protesting against the latest dose of austerity that Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy's conservative government — not yet 100 days old — has prescribed to appease European Union overseers and jittery investors watching Spain's debt grow and its GDP shrink.
Among other things, the reforms make it cheaper and easier for companies to lay people off and cut wages unilaterally.
Claiming victory, the unions demanded a "gesture" from the government to scale back the reforms, warning they could cause more unrest from May 1. The government quickly said no.
"There is no stopping on the path to reform," Labor Minister Fatima Banez said.
The government will on Friday serve up even more austerity pain with a 2012 budget to feature tens of billions of euros (dollars) in deficit-reduction measures.
The cuts are designed to lower the national deficit to within EU limits and calm the international investors who determine the country's borrowing costs in debt markets — and therefore have a lot of say in whether Spain will follow Greece, Ireland and Portugal in needing a bailout.

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