CCOO and UGT have assessed this Wednesday as a "massive success" the development of the general strike in Asturias over the right to housing called for this 11N, placing the follow-up in the autonomous community at around 75 percent, according to their own calculations.
At a joint appearance before the media to take stock of the day, the representative of CCOO in Asturias, Esther Barbón, has defined the stoppage as "very positive" because it managed to bring the debate about housing to workplaces, an issue she described as "a top-priority labor problem" in understanding that the cost of properties "eats up wages."
Barbón has specified that the strike had nearly 100 percent support in reference companies in the Asturian industry such as Arcelor, Thyssen, Fertiberia or Rioglass. She has also highlighted a similar impact on Gijón’s urban transport, on road-cleaning services, on waste collection and on the logistics platform of Alimerka, as well as in large commercial retail stores distributed around the region.
In the health sector, the union leader placed support at around 95 percent, despite the minimum services established by the administration, which she called "abusive."
On the other hand, the UGT general secretary in Asturias, Javier Fernández Lanero, has confirmed that the participation data sent from Madrid place the follow-up in the community at 75 percent, which places Asturias among the autonomous communities with the highest incidence, together with Catalonia, Navarre, Aragon and Castilla-La Mancha.
Fernández Lanero has stressed that, once the minimum services in the public administration have been discounted, production has been practically halted in the large industry, the shipbuilding sector and the arms factory. Likewise, he has emphasized that no incidents have been recorded in the information pickets deployed during the night and the first hours of the day.
In relation to the criticisms that attribute the call to partisan motivations, CCOO’s spokesperson has insisted that the strike responds "to a social, popular and labor clamor" that arose after the eviction and subsequent death of Mari Carmen.
Lanero has reinforced the labor nature of the conflict by pointing out that the increase in the interprofessional minimum wage to 1,290 euros is insufficient to deal with the average rental and mortgage prices in Asturias.