Thousands of people have once again filled the streets of Palma on the afternoon of this Wednesday to join the demonstration called on the occasion of the strike for housing and for decent wages.
The march began around 18:30 in Plaza de España and is part of the protests that are also being held in Ciutadella, Maó, Eivissa and various points elsewhere in the country. In the morning, about 1,700 people had already taken part in a mobilization of the education sector in the Balearic capital.
The route of the demonstration, in which representatives from all the unions that support the day of stoppage have taken part, went along the Avenues and the Rambla until it ended at the Born.
The trade union organizations assessed both the strike’s follow-up and the “multitudinous” participation in the evening protest very positively.
The general secretary of CCOO in the Balearic Islands, José Luis García, has stressed that workers suffer from salaries that do not reach to make it to the end of the month, a constant increase in the cost of living and the “astronomical” rise in housing.
From the Sindicat de Llogateres de Mallorca, its spokesperson Celeste Rodríguez has described the day as an “success” and has underlined that the strike “is not partisan”.
In the same line, the general secretary of UGT, Pedro Homar, has expressed himself, demanding that all administrations put real and effective solutions in motion.
“We have local wages at international prices,” he has denounced, while also criticizing that “absurd partisan fighting has caused this situation”.
According to the calculation of the calling organizations, the demonstration brought together about 45,000 people. Nearly an hour after the start of the march, there were still attendees in Plaza de España waiting to join the route.
The unions, which at midday had placed the follow-up to the strike at around 48 percent in the Balearic Islands, have shown confidence that the protests would be massive. CCOO and UGT have linked these figures to the economic situation of the working class and, in certain sectors, to what they consider excessive minimum services.
In the transport sector, monitoring has been placed, up to midday, at 100% in SFM and TIB, at 80 percent in the EMT, and at 60 percent at the airport. In education, according to figures from the Govern, the strike has had a follow-up of 14.9% across the archipelago as a whole. In health care, participation has been 5.8% and, among staff of the regional administration, the percentage has reached 11.7%.
In the state administration, Correos, with 60 percent, is the body with the greatest incidence, followed by the Sepe, the General Treasury of Social Security and the National Institute of Social Security (30 percent), and the Tax Agency (25 percent).
Regarding commerce, the trade union confederations have admitted that support has been limited, although, according to contacts made during the morning, many employees have not stopped not because of disagreement with the demands, but because of the pressure of their economic situation. Hospitality, in the midst of the low season, also shows limited follow-up.
On the other hand, employers’ associations have described the day as one of normalcy and have estimated that the impact has been “minimal” both in small and medium-sized enterprises and in the hotel sector, and among the self-employed.
PIQUETS AND INCIDENTS
The strike day has begun with information pickets and some incidents, after the National Police prevented a group of young people—several of them with their faces covered—from cutting off Adolfo Suárez Avenue in Palma in the first hours of the morning.
This same group had momentarily blocked Alexandre Rosselló Avenue and, later, headed toward Adolfo Suárez with the intention, again, of interrupting traffic.
At the same time, the airports of the Balearic Islands have recorded about a dozen cancellations throughout the day. At Palma airport, there have been seven cancellations in arrivals from Madrid, Barcelona, and other islands, and three additional cancellations in departures bound for Madrid, Maó, and Eivissa.