The start of the strike called for this Wednesday, 11 November, begins at 00.00 hours. The regulations protect the peaceful communication and persuasion about the strike, but require respect for the freedom of those who decide to work The activity of the information pickets usually marks the first hours of a strike day. When the call begins at midnight these groups can start to spread the reasons for the strike and ask for it to be followed. They may try to persuade other workers to join the strike, but they cannot force them or prevent them from accessing their workplace.
The Constitution recognizes the right to strike and the Constitutional Court includes within its protection the information, propaganda and persuasion tasks of the pickets.
Why do pickets start acting at midnight?
The start at 00.00 hours is linked to the beginning of the calls that cover the natural day and allows them to address those who work at night or who join in on the first shifts.
There is no mandatory legal time for pickets to start. Their organization depends on the organizers and on the strike schedule. To know the exact period of a strike it is necessary to consult the call, whose communication must include the start date.
What law regulates information pickets
The central rule is the Royal Decree-law 17/1977, of 4 March, on labor relations, applied in accordance with the Constitution and the case law of the Constitutional Court.
Its article 6.6 allows strikers to make peaceful publicity about the strike and collect funds without coercion. At the same time, article 6.4 requires respecting the freedom to work of those who do not want to join. Both provisions delimit the actions of pickets.
What a picket can do during the strike
Members of a picket can distribute leaflets, explain the demands and ask other workers to support the call. Their function is not limited to communicating that there is a strike: they can also try to persuade those who have decided to work to change their minds.
The Constitutional Court recognizes that peaceful information, propaganda, persuasion and deterrence form part of the right to strike. Therefore, requesting support for the strike does not by itself constitute coercion.
Collecting voluntary contributions to support the strike is also permitted, provided that payments are not imposed and no coercive means are used to obtain them.
What you cannot do: block entrances, threaten, or force closures
The right to strike does not allow physically preventing entry to work, blocking customers’ access, or forcing an establishment to close through threats or intimidation.
Constitutional case law also places outside its protection assaults, damage to facilities, the violent interception of vehicles, and threats directed at having a worker leave their post. It also does not cover preventing access by the persons designated to provide minimum services.
The difference lies in how it is carried out: asking for a business to close to support the strike can be a peaceful action; forcing that closure through intimidation goes beyond legal limits. It is not necessary for there to be physical assault for coercive conduct to exist: the Constitutional Court also excludes moral violence of an intimidating reach.
Were the coercion by pickets decriminalized?
The Organic Law 5/2021 repealed Article 315.3 of the Criminal Code, which specifically punished coercion to initiate or continue a strike.
That reform did not make coercion legal. The general offense of coercion continues to protect freedom not to go on strike, as the repeal law itself explains. Depending on the facts, offenses of threats, injuries, or damage may also come into play.