A general strike was held in the Basque Country on 21 May 1999, with the purpose of calling for a 35-hour working week. The strike was initially called by the nationalist trade unions ELA and LAB, but they were later joined by Spain's national UGT and CC.OO confederations.
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A general strike was held in the Basque Country on 21 May 1999, with the purpose of calling for a 35-hour working week. The strike was initially called by the nationalist trade unions ELA and LAB, but they were later joined by Spain's national UGT and CC.OO confederations.
A one-day general strike held in the Basque Country on 21 May 1999 called for a law to introduce a 35-hour working week (ES9902297F). It was the fifth general strike in the region since Spain's transition to democracy in the 1970s. The action's aim was to call on Basque employers and government to negotiate over the 35-hour week and the "social wage" in both the private and public sectors. The strike was initially called by the nationalist trade unions ELA and LAB, which were later joined by the national union confederations UGT and CC.OO. This was the first time in the Basque Country that the four trade unions have come together in a strike, although the agreement to do so was reached from opposing political and trade union positions. The unions decided that, on this occasion, the reluctance of employers to consider shorter working hours and the reorganisation of work called for a joint response. Once the strike had been organised, the nationalist unions held demonstrations separately from those of CC.OO and UGT in Bilbao. According to the organisers, the demonstrations were attended by over 20,000 people.
The strike was widely supported in the Basque Country (but not in Navarra, where it had been called only by the nationalist unions), though it received more support in villages than in the provincial capitals. Guipúzcoa was the province in which the strike received most support, whereas the least support was registered in Álava. There were some incidents between the pickets and the autonomous Basque police, which resulted in several arrests and two people injured.
According to the trade unions, the strike received almost total support in the industrial sector, where they estimate that the coverage was over 80% owing to the closure of large companies (including ACB, Mercedes, Michelin, Gamesa, Iberdrola, Mecánica de la Peña, Sidenor, Aceralia and Firestone). They also estimate that the strike received massive support in the service sector, in which transport, regional and local government and teaching were paralysed. Nevertheless, it was not possible to close down retail outlets and catering establishments completely. The trade unions qualified the strike as a success since it had received more support than any other in the Basque Country since Spain's transition to democracy.
The Basque employers' association, CONFEBASK, however, was of another opinion. According to the employers, the strike was not general and voluntary but "uneven and imposed" because of the action of the pickets and because minimum services were not maintained in the transport sector. In the days leading up to the strike, the representatives of CONFEBASK stated that they were willing to negotiate but not to change their position, which is to negotiate shorter working hours by collective agreement, but to reject their imposition by law. The Basque government and the central government likewise share this view. The Spanish Minister of Labour, Manuel Pimentel, stated that the general strike held in the Basque Country to call for the 35-hour week went "beyond the concept of a pure labour strike, and for that reason it may not be extended to other parts of Spain". Mr Pimentel repeated the conservative government's opposition to introducing a law on shorter working hours.
Eurofound recommends citing this publication in the following way.
Eurofound (1999), General strike held in the Basque Country, article.
