Catherwood LibraryILR School

Spain?s rival trade unions---Comisio-nes Oreras and the smaller Union General de Trabajadores---stood united yesterday in their call for a general strike coinciding with the European Union summit in Seville. Planned for June 20, the strike is a response to major new restrictions on unemployment benefits proposed by President Jose Maria Aznar, and would be the first instance of massive labor unrest in Spain in eight years. While President Aznar?s government insists that the current unemployment benefit system hurts the economy by preventing labor mobility, the unions claim that forty percent of the unemployed are already ineligible for unemployment insurance and have made it clear that they strongly oppose any economic policy that further infringes upon labor rights and protections.