Spain is holding a 24-hour nationwide general strike on Wednesday, 11 November, the first full-scale walkout of its kind in 14 years, as the country's two biggest trade unions protest over wages, housing and the rising cost of living. The strike, called by the Comisiones Obreras (CCOO) and the Union General de Trabajadores (UGT) and backed by smaller unions including the CGT and CNT, began at midnight and covers every sector, public and private, from transport and schools to health care and the civil service.
The unions are marching under the slogan "Salarios, vivienda y precios" — wages, housing and prices — and say the action is a response to a housing affordability crisis and years of pay failing to keep up with living costs. It is the first joint general strike called by the two federations since 2012, and it comes less than three weeks before Spain's general election on 29 November, giving the stoppage an unmistakably political edge.
Transport is bearing the brunt of the disruption. The government has set legally mandated minimum services, but they are thin: in Catalonia, commuter and regional trains, the metro and buses are running at only 25 per cent of normal service during the morning and evening peaks, and not at all outside those hours. Nationally, high-speed and long-distance Renfe trains are running at about 73 per cent of their usual service and medium-distance trains at 65 per cent, while the high-speed operator Ouigo is running 18 of its 26 scheduled services.
Air travel is also heavily affected. At Madrid's Barajas airport, the minimum service guarantees 57 per cent of international flights, 32 per cent of domestic services and 78 per cent of flights to the Spanish islands. At Barcelona's El Prat, the figures are 56 per cent for international flights, 34 per cent domestic and 79 per cent for island routes. Iberia has warned passengers that some flights will be affected and is offering alternative arrangements, while airport operator Aena has posted alerts about the industrial action and the minimum-service arrangements.
The strike is colliding with bad weather. Storm Charles is bringing heavy rain and gusts of up to about 75 miles per hour to Madeira, mainland Portugal and Spain, and Spain's weather service, Aemet, says Wednesday will be the worst day. The combination of a national stoppage and a major storm has left travellers facing cancellations on the ground and in the air at the same time, and foreign ministries including Britain's Foreign Office have updated their travel advice to warn of disruption.
Large protests are planned in Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia, Seville, Malaga and Bilbao, and the US Embassy in Spain issued an alert on 6 November warning that the unrest had the potential to turn violent and advising citizens to expect a heavier police presence and possible road closures. The strike is not a shutdown of the whole country: hospitals, schools and essential services are running on minimum staffing, and long-distance trains and international flights are still moving, but at sharply reduced levels.
The walkout sits in the middle of a wider week of rail disruption. The train drivers' union SEMAF staged a full stoppage on Tuesday, 10 November, and has called partial stoppages for Thursday, 12 November, while a broader rail-sector strike has already been announced for 17 November. The rail network is also still dealing with the aftermath of a collision near Urda in Toledo province on 28 October, which killed 69 people and injured more than 100.
For the unions, the strike is about more than one day's pay. Spain's housing crisis — soaring rents and house prices, especially in Madrid and Barcelona — has become the central grievance, and the unions say the government has not done enough to make homes affordable or to lift wages in line with prices. The stoppage is their attempt to force those issues to the top of the election campaign, and to show that they can still bring the country to a standstill.
Whether it works will be judged in the coming days, in the turnout on the streets and in the response of the political parties. For now, Spain is spending Wednesday with its trains thinned, its flights cut, its metros running at a quarter of their usual frequency, and its biggest cities braced for marches — a reminder that, 14 years after the last general strike, the country's unions can still stop the nation when they choose to.
