Spain Hasn’t Seen a Strike Like Next Wednesday’s in Fourteen Years

Spain faces a 24-hour nationwide general strike on Wednesday, November 11, called by the country’s two largest unions, CCOO and UGT, along with smaller unions and housing campaign groups. Euronews, as cited by Deep Arrival, describes it as the first general strike jointly backed by both big unions since November 2012. The grievances are housing costs, wages and living standards.

For travelers, the risk is broad. Travel Extra reports that airport ground handling staff, cabin crew and air traffic controllers could be involved, and that Renfe commuter trains and AVE high-speed services are expected to be heavily affected. Metros and local buses in major cities are expected to run only minimum services, and marches are planned in Madrid and Barcelona that may block major roads.

It does not stop there. The train drivers’ union SEMAF has called rail-specific strikes for November 10 to 12, so the disruption could bracket the general strike on both sides. The timing also falls during the campaign for a snap general election on November 29, according to Travel Extra. The transport ministry had not yet published its minimum-service requirements as of November 5.

As a yardstick, the 2012 general strike saw government minimums set at 10 percent of mainland domestic flights and 50 percent of mainland-to-island flights, with roughly 700 flights cancelled, according to reporting cited by Deep Arrival. Under EU rules, passengers on cancelled flights are entitled to a refund or rerouting, and advice is to wait for the airline to cancel rather than cancelling yourself.

Sources: Travel Extra, Deep Arrival