Some 100,000 workers are marching on European Union institutions in Brussels today as a general strike gets under way in Spain to protest the cost-cutting measures of governments desperate to control debt.
Picketers hurled eggs at buses and blocked trucks from delivering produce to wholesale markets as Spanish workers went on strike.
The protest is against austerity measures imposed by a government struggling to slash its budget deficit and overcome recession.
Striking workers braving a pre-dawn chill staged a sit-in outside a garage housing buses in the capital Madrid, screaming “scabs” at drivers trying to get out on to the road in the country’s first general strike since 2002.
Some strikers scuffled with police, and Spanish National Radio said 11 people were injured nationwide.
As day broke, Madrid’s Barajas Airport was free of protesters, although unions have said they want to severely limit domestic and international flights. The national aviation authority AENA said 70 per cent of the country’s air traffic controllers are expected to show up for work.
Strikers wearing red shirts and waving flags roamed the streets of Madrid from midnight, urging bars to shut down and night-owl customers to leave.
The stoppage marks a bitter split in the close relationship between unions and Spain’s socialist government, which is struggling with a 20 per cent unemployment rate and a bloated deficit that has prompted market worries it might end up in the kind of dire straits that forced a massive bailout for Greece.
The austerity measures include wage cuts for civil servants, a freeze on most retirement pensions and labour market reforms that make it easier and cheaper for companies to lay people off.
A government website set up to provide information on the strike said there no were no major incidents to report. It said that in the first hour of the strike, electricity consumption in Spanish industry was down 15 per cent.
Several regional television stations interrupted broadcasts shortly after midnight as staffers honoured the strike.
Meanwhile in Belgium, around 100,000 workers are marching on European Union institutions in Brussels.
The march could be one of the biggest in the capital for years. It will coincide with the European Commission making proposals to punish member states that have run up deficits, often by funding social and employment programmes.
The unions fear workers will become the biggest victims of a crisis set off by bankers and traders, many of whom had to be rescued by massive government intervention.
In Greece, bus and trolley drivers walked off the job for several hours while Athens’ metro system and tram were to shut down later today.
National railway workers were also walking off the job, disrupting rail connections across the country, while doctors at state hospitals were on a 24-hour strike.
Greece has already been suffering from two weeks of protests by truck drivers who have made it difficult for businesses to get supplies. Many supermarkets are seeing shortages, while producers complaining they are unable to export their goods.
Greece’s government has imposed stringent austerity measures, including cutting civil servants’ salaries, trimming pensions and increasing taxes.
In Portugal, workers marched through the streets in Lisbon and Porto to protest at spending cuts as the minority government was holding a cabinet meeting after which it was widely expected to announce further cuts and possibly tax rises.
PA