The unions are studying calling a general strike due to the housing crisis on November 11th

MadridThe unions are studying calling a general strike in the State due to the housing crisis on November 11th, two days before the start of the November 29th election campaign, as reported by the UGT in a statement made public this Wednesday. This date is the one gaining the most weight, although the unions—CCOO, the UGT, and the Confederation of Tenants' Unions (CSI)—will meet this Wednesday afternoon to finalize it or choose another one. November 11th is the proposal that the Tenants' Unions have initially put forward to CCOO and the UGT.

If November 11th is ultimately chosen, it will mean that the 24-hour general strike will take place two days before the start of the election campaign for the upcoming Spanish elections on November 29th, which Pedro Sánchez has called in advance precisely due to the impossibility of approving two housing decrees following the eviction of Maricarmen Abascal in Madrid.

The case of this 87-year-old neighbor from Madrid has triggered a wave of indignation throughout the State, with mobilizations, demonstrations, and encampments like the one at Puerta del Sol. The Tenants' Union has led the protests and had been pressuring the major unions for days to go on a general strike in light of the difficulties in accessing decent housing.

The announcement of the general strike call has already generated critical voices. The Spanish employers' association CEOE and the Catalan Foment del Treball have questioned its legal basis for not responding to a socio-labor motive. The general secretary of CCOO, Unai Sordo, argued this week that the demand "will not only be about housing," but that it will be "fundamentally" about the "need to promote" a wage increase: "Housing is eating up half of many families' salaries, they are two things intimately linked," he stated.

It is true that the general strike proposed by the Tenants' Union puts housing and rental prices in the spotlight, which is why CCOO and UGT were measuring how it could fit with a socio-labor demand. The housing problem, however, affects the population's purchasing power –the upward pressure on prices takes up a large part of workers' salaries–, and even many companies recognize that it is a difficulty when it comes to finding employees. This is the angle to which the two unions have finally clung, which have not hesitated to point out companies, but also public administrations—particularly the central government—given the need to protect workers' rights regarding salaries. The goal of the Tenants' Union is for it to be a "massive strike that paralyzes the country" and that it "manages to win its demands".