Spanish civil servants call for general strike

Unions have called for a general strike in response to the Government's plans to impose a 5 percent wage cut starting next month, and to freeze wages next year as one of the proposals to cut the deficit, announced by the Prime Minister in Congress yesterday.

Last night the president of the CSI_CSIF union announced a general strike by civil servants, in response to the announcement made by the Prime Minister earlier yesterday that their wages are to be cut by 5% from June.

Zapatero named the wage freeze as just one small part of the new measures from the Government designed to reduce Spain’s debt as demanded by the European Union.

Speaking on TV, the leader of the main civil servants union, said that ‘there will be a general strike’ in response to the austerity measures, but he declined to give an exact date.

Prime Minister has already called for a meeting to be held today with representatives from the two main unions in Spain, CCOO and UGT. Unions have already criticised the austerity plan and say they have not ruled out further action.

However, the International Monetary Fund has praised the Government’s proposals, describing them as ‘very good’.