“To the rentiers, we want to ask you how long you will be able to hold out if we stop paying you our rent”. In the center of Madrid, a unanimous and massive chant resonated loudly during the general strike to defend the right to housing. Messages against the owners of rental apartments and proclamations of disappointment with the Spanish government. “Rentiers are guilty, the government is responsible,” proclaimed the Tenants' Union from the loudspeakers leading the march. The demonstration, a few hours before the start of the election campaign, overflowed the streets of Madrid with 120,000 attendees according to the Spanish government delegation.

Montserrat Junyent is the president of the Association of Real Estate Agents (COAPI) of Barcelona and the Association of Real Estate Agents of Catalonia (AIC). She speaks to ARA on the same day the country is mobilizing in a general strike over the housing crisis.

Discrepancy between employers' associations and unions regarding the turnout for this Wednesday's general strike. While unions and convening organizations speak of a successful work stoppage, employers' associations downplay the turnout, although they highlight the impact of picket lines and mobility difficulties as one of the factors that make the impact greater than the actual turnout for the strike by workers.

The first of the three days of strikes scheduled for Rodalies is already quite a statement of intent. Renfe warned early this Tuesday that the train drivers of Semaf, the majority union that called the stoppages, are not even complying with the minimum services. The operator has apologized and recommends looking for "alternative means of transport" and admits that "the trains are not providing the scheduled service".

Catalan pop now has its We are the world. About thirty artists from the Catalan music scene have mobilized for the right to housing and have recorded a song, Estimada Valentina, which premieres this Monday, just two days before the general strike on November 11th. The profits generated by Estimada Valentina will be donated to the Sindicat de Llogateres de Catalunya (Catalan Tenants' Union). The song was written by Pau Serrasolsas, from the group Ginestà, who are the initiators of this project. Artists such as Figa Flawas, Gerard Quintana, Al·lèrgiques al Pol·len, The Tyets, Joan Dausà, La Ludwig Band, Maria Jaume, and Miki Núñez, among many others, are participating.

The Government has now specified what the minimum services will be for the general strike on November 11th in Catalonia. The Department of Business and Labor has decreed that on November 11th, Rodalies, the metro, the Ferrocarrils de la Generalitat (FGC), the tram, and urban and interurban buses will have to guarantee 25% of the regular service during peak hours, from 6:30 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. and from 4:30 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. In contrast, the bus service connecting Barcelona with the airport will operate at 50%. In the healthcare sector, the normal operation of emergency services and special units will be maintained, while in schools, there will be one teacher for every six classes in preschool and primary education.

We have been talking about nothing but the train accident in Toledo for 24 hours now, where 68 people have died as of yesterday, for the moment. So I take all the preliminaries as read. Political consequences: trains in Toledo, where 68 people have died as of yesterday, for the moment. So I take all the preliminaries as read. Political consequences: Óscar Puente cannot continue to be minister of Transport for even one more minute. This year 2026, 115 people have been killed on Spanish trains: 46 in Andalusia, 1 in Gelida and 68 in Toledo. And one accident is a tragedy. Three accidents with 115 deaths are not just three tragedies. They are the system.

A train driver strike the day after the tragic train accident in Toledo foreshadowed a complicated day for mobility in Catalonia, but the reality is that no major incidents have been recorded. In part, however, this has also been because there have been fewer passengers: the Rodalies network recorded a 25% drop in passenger numbers compared to a normal day in the early hours of this Thursday. In contrast, coaches leaving the Vallès Oriental and Occidental and the Maresme regions filled all their seats and some delays occurred. On the roads, according to the Catalan Traffic Service, no significant increase in mobility has been detected either. The company Ouigo has cancelled all the trains it had scheduled for this Friday and next Monday with the aim of preventing the strike from increasing chaos in the railway system due to the Urda accident.

Unlike other unions, which have postponed sectoral strikes following the call for elections and the general strike on November 11th, Metges de Catalunya has called on medical professionals in the public healthcare system this Wednesday to go on an indefinite strike. It is the twelfth strike call this year from the group. "They can negotiate or call elections and leave for being incompetent," stated the union's secretary general, Xavier Lleonart, in reference to the "two options" that the Department of Health and, by extension, the Generalitat, have on the table to suspend the strike.

School mobilizations are back. The Educational Assembly of Catalonia approved this Saturday a new cycle of strikes that will also extend until the second term of the school year. The first of the work stoppages is scheduled for November 26, three days before the general elections. They have also called for a prior demonstration, for November 21, and have made a call for a general strike.

Empty supermarket shelves, tomatoes at six euros a kilo... this is one part of the picture left by the wildcat strike led by Italian transporters to protest against the increase in fuel prices. The other part of the image is the lines of trucks that have been blocking the country's main highways for a week, causing shortages, especially in the southern regions of Italy.

Barça will experience a weekend marked by labor conflict with seasonal permanent workers, employees with indefinite contracts who work periodically according to the club's needs, and who have called a strike coinciding with the 'Clásico' against Real Madrid at Camp Nou (9 pm). The mobilization, promoted by CCOO, will begin at 12 am on Friday, October 23rd, and will last until 6 am on Monday the 26th. The union denounces a deterioration in working conditions, lack of personnel, inequality among workers, and breaches of agreements and the collective bargaining agreement. It also criticizes the progressive reduction of staff while some services are handed over to external companies.

A new day with altered mobility, this time especially in Barcelona. This Thursday marks the first day of partial strikes by the bus workers of Transports Metropolitans de Barcelona (TMB). Previous negotiations have not been able to prevent the stoppages which, as announced by the unions, begin today and will be repeated twice a week throughout the month of October.

After a pause in the mobilizations and the indefinite teachers' strike on June 11, the involved entities have agreed on "the need to maintain unity of action and continue promoting the mobilization process," which is materialized in a call to demonstrate on September 12. "It has been agreed to continue working together within the framework of a strike, currently suspended, with the aim of resuming the demands raised to the Ministry of Education and demanding a real negotiation that provides a response to the teachers' demands," they declare.

Barcelona's libraries have been on an indefinite strike since May 26, although their demands had already begun earlier. This Tuesday, September 1, 33 out of the city's 41 libraries were closed in the morning as a show of strength by the collective, which demands —insists— that Barcelona City Council and the Library Consortium open negotiations. The City Council and the Consortium assure that negotiations are open and issued a statement explaining that a series of things have been offered to the library staff, but one of two things: either it's not quite like that or what is offered does not satisfy the demands of the striking workers (the vast majority of library staff, and of the book sector, are women). What are these demands? Improvement of schedules, salary improvement, and professional recognition. They are sensible claims: many librarians work double shifts of eleven or more hours a day which make family reconciliation impossible and, of course, their remuneration is far below the importance of their task. Hence the need for professional recognition, which naturally must be reflected in the salary they receive.But broad social recognition of their work is also necessary. It is necessary to extend among the citizenry, much more consistently than now, that libraries provide an essential public service for a democratic society that wishes to facilitate access to reading for all citizens —especially children and young people, but for everyone— regardless of their origin, social class, or purchasing power. This must be emphasized. Facilitating citizens' access to reading: this is the task of libraries, and it is not an easy job. They train and update themselves in a highly demanding way to be able to do it. And we must insist on this, because the work of librarians is not that of social assistants, nor of facilitators, nor of technicians in family care. All these jobs are also necessary, but they are not the jobs that a library technician should do. A public library should also not be a climate shelter, nor many other things.A library promotes reading among citizens. This is of enormous importance. To give examples, the work of a librarian is infinitely more important than that of all the First Division footballers, or that of all the "politicians" who do nothing more than repeat what their party orders them to do. Access to reading is a public service as important as that provided by teachers and healthcare professionals, who, incidentally, it is no coincidence that they are also fighting for the dignity of their profession, in both cases. We live in days when the dignity, importance, and viability of public services are sought to be denied: for this very reason, they must be defended more than ever. To go against essential public services —the library is one— is to go against ourselves as citizens.

The works council of the Barcelona Libraries Consortium made a call this Tuesday, in front of the Sagrada Família, to all staff to massively support the strike, which has been active since the end of May. About fifty workers participated in the rally, but their request had an immediate and notable impact, as only 4 out of 37 libraries opened their doors. "There has been a 60% follow-up from the staff who were supposed to work the morning shift compared to 40% of the staff who are working behind closed doors," explained Ferran Burguillos, manager of the Libraries Consortium.

The workers of the third social sector are called this Wednesday to a 24-hour strike –called by the majority unions CCOO and UGT– to demand that wage parity with staff hired by public administration be applied. The protest is the first act of mobilization, as 15-minute partial stoppages are planned at workplaces on Wednesdays, July 15 and 29.

As agreed on June 18, this Tuesday the workers of TV3 and Catalunya Ràdio have carried out a partial strike to denounce that the management of public media is not complying with the agreement, among other issues. As a form of protest, the workers have decided to stop for ten minutes at the beginning of Telenotícies in the case of television (from 2:30 p.m. to 2:40 p.m., and from 9 p.m. to 9:10 p.m.) and at the beginning of Catalunya migdia (from 2 p.m. to 2:10 p.m.) and Tot Costa (from 7 p.m. to 7:10 p.m.) on Catalunya Ràdio.

The teachers' unions leading the mobilizations to demand educational improvements have once again warned this Saturday that the next school year will be turbulent and that protests will disrupt classrooms from the start of the first term.

This Sunday's event was the last major mobilization of teachers before the end of the school year, and also the unions' final warning to the Government that the resumption of classes in September could be just as turbulent if an agreement is not reached. Thousands of teachers and professors took to the streets again this morning in Barcelona to force "a change in public education". This time, moreover, they had another objective: to show that they have the support of families and society.