Unions threaten general strike if housing decrees fall

General strike over housing: the union threat that rings hollow

Can you call a general strike against those who don't govern? Unions are considering a general strike or mobilisation if the right votes down the housing decrees, according to the approach on the table. The strike would not target the government that signed the rules, but rather PP and Vox, blamed for bringing down the legislation. The paradox is the trigger for all the discontent.

The threat: general strike if the right votes down the decrees

The threat comes with no date, no formal call and no details of scope. It is a warning: if the housing decrees fall, the unions are considering stopping work. The issue is not minor because housing has become the axis of the political agenda and the reason why part of the young population still cannot leave home. Unions want to be there, at the centre of the standoff.

There is another, less flattering reading. Part of the membership argues that the government itself cooked up the problem and that the unions looked the other way while demand was strained. They argue that the arrival of population was backed without building enough housing or services, and that this imbalance is what is now paid in the rent bill.

The accusation of a political strike: against the opposition, not the government

The most repeated reproach is textbook: a general strike called against opposition parties would be the first of its kind in history. Some sum it up with a sneer: they don't even wait for the right to govern, and the classic "they haven't even been two years" falls short. The legal fit doesn't help either, it is argued: a strike of a political nature does not have it easy.

Who would join the strike? The civil service core and credibility

The most cynical calculation discounts half the workforce. It is argued that only public employees would turn up to such a call, the only ones who can stop going to work without risking their jobs. A harsher diagnosis weighs on the unions: "0 credibility and even less support", some write. Those who are members and admit it point to the disconnection with the ordinary worker as the real problem, more than the content of the protest.

What was not called: prices, wages and income tax

Here is the most painful reproach. There has been no general strike over the price surge, over wages that do not keep pace with the cost of living, over the lack of deflactation of income tax (IRPF) or over the energy bill. And now yes, over two decrees. The comparison is launched by those who suspect the timing owes more to the parliamentary standoff than to the shopping basket.

The joke going around finishes the job: this mobilisation would not serve to make rent cheaper, but seafood. Goose barnacles, lobsters and spider crabs at popular prices. If the aim was to regain credibility, the start has been the worst possible.