NY Times: 'Spain’s Socialists and Unions Struggle to Adapt'

SPAIN (Source New York Times) With 20 percent unemployment and a series of unpopular new austerity measures, Spain  would seem a natural breeding ground for labor unrest. But by most accounts, a general strike late last month was more a demonstration of discontent than a sign of trouble brewing. Analysts said it appeared to be a well-choreographed effort by unions to show that they were upset with the austerity measures without significantly damaging an ally, Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, who is at his weakest point since being elected in 2004. Indeed, recent interviews with the three main protagonists of the strike revealed a peculiar concord: the two main unions declared victory but could not point to specific concessions they expected to win from the government, led by the Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party, and the labor minister praised the unions’ bargaining skills. (Read the full story here)