After asking for millions in aid, Spain's CEOE warns: a housing strike would be "ILLEGAL"

CEOE, Spain's main business association, argues that a general strike over housing would be illegal because it does not arise from a labour dispute. The right to strike is enshrined in the Constitution; whether a specific strike call complies with the law is for the courts to decide.

**CEOE**, the Spanish Confederation of Business Organisations, argues that a general strike over housing would be "illegal" because it does not fall within a labour dispute, as reported by **20minutos.es**. The employers' association neither calls strikes nor decides on their legality.

## What is a labour strike, and what is not

Housing is not a working condition: it is a matter of access, prices and supply.

For that reason, under this criterion, a protest against housing policy does not fit the mould of a labour strike, which pits workers against an employer over a collective agreement.

## General strikes have already been political

General strikes have been called in Spain in **1988**, 1994, 2002, 2010 and 2012, driven by **UGT** and **CCOO** (Spain's two main trade unions).

Several had an obvious political component and went ahead without anyone declaring them illegal beforehand. That does not make a housing strike call automatically lawful, but the legal fit is not so simple.

## The right to strike and its limits

Article **28.2** of the Constitution recognises the right to strike, and Royal Decree-Law **17/1977** regulates its exercise.

Neither of these rules defines what a general strike is, nor do they prohibit one on account of its motive. When there is a dispute, it is the courts that resolve it.

None of this is legal advice.