Workers across Spain stage first general strike in 14 years as anger rages over housing
“Spanish workers went on a general strike on Wednesday, enduring stormy weather to set up picket lines in a mass protest against the country's housing affordability crisis less than three weeks before …”
It is the first general strike in 14 years to be jointly backed by Spain's two largest unions, UGT and CCOO, as well as other labour organisations and tenants' associations angry aboutrising rents and evictions.
Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez hopes to harness voter resentment over housing in the November 29 election to shift the political narrative away from a series ofcorruption casesinvolving his inner circle and adeadly train crash last month. So far, his Socialist Party stilltrails in opinion polls.
Unions said participation in the strike was uneven across Spain, with the strongest support in coastal regions including the Cantabrian coast, Catalonia, Andalusia and parts of the Mediterranean, where housing pressures have been particularly acute. Spain has a deficit of about 750,000 homes, which is set to grow to more than a million by 2028,.
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Read:Spain targets holiday rentals to tackle housing crisis. With fewer people able to afford a home, renting has increased sharply, putting pressure on that market. The average rental price of €1,176 ($1,315) is equivalent to about 98.7% of a young person's average monthly salary in Spain, Spain.
"I’m 36 years old, and I still can’t move out on my own," said Madrid resident Jesus Gonzalez, 36, who works in a hospital IT department. "Rents just keep going up, house prices just keep going up, and it’s simply impossible.
"Early turnout strongest at ports, Auto plants. Angela de Miguel, vice president of Spain's main business lobby CEOE, said the strike was counterproductive because small businesses were also affected by the housing crisis, since shortages of homes made recruitment more challenging.
Speaking on state broadcasterTVE, she said the solution was to build more homes and to lower taxes in construction and the home-buying process, which she said had helped increase the final price of buying a new home by 40 per cent in the past decade.
Plans for massive protest marches in the afternoon were threatened by two storms, dubbed Charles and Bruna, that led weather agency AEMET to issue alerts for 14 regions over strong winds, rough seas and heavy rains.11/11 11:06 AVISOS HOY Y MAÑANA | España: costeros, vientos, lluvias y tormentas. Nivel máximo de aviso: rojo.
Actualizaciones enhttps://t.co/BLdo. SsO2Qvpic.twitter.com/GrZChkl0HX— AEMET (@AEMET_Esp)November 11, 2026According to UGT and CCOO, early participation in the strike reached 90 per cent at ports and in the automotive sector, with "total stoppages" reported at factories including Volkswagen's (VOWG.DE) in Navarre and SEAT's in Barcelona.
The unions also put early turnout at 85pc in the meat industry, 82pc in waste collection and 75pc in the energy sector. They said participation was lower in healthcare and social services, at 38pc, and at 35pc in the postal service.
Read more:Spain goes for snap elections. They pointed to a 10pc drop in electricity demand as an indication of disruption across energy-intensive industries, saying much of the petrochemical, steel-processing, food-processing and transport sectors had halted activity apart from operations covered by minimum service requirements.
Tensions flared at the start of the strike at Madrid's Mercamadrid wholesale market, where about 1,000 protesters gathered. CCOO's Madrid branch said on X that police fired pepper spray at pickets and arrested one of them, with 13 people requiring medical attention.🔴Cargas policiales en Mercamadrid para disolver el piquete informativo.🔴Varios heridos por gas pimienta.#11NHuelga.
Generalpic.twitter.com/39XJd. SzCYK— CCOO de Madrid (@CCOOMadrid)November 11, 2026A police spokesperson confirmed the arrest but not the use of pepper spray, although he said it was used to disperse a separate picket line in the Carabanchel district.
Dozens of protesters attempted to prevent buses from leaving Madrid's municipal bus depot early on Wednesday, waving flags and chanting slogans such as "while you work, they are stealing from you" and "you're either with the capitalists or the working class.
"In the southern region of Andalusia, television station Canal Sur Television joined the protest by going black during the transmission of a morning news bulletin. Election gamble. The strike follows weeks of demonstrations and encampments provoked by theeviction and subsequent deathof an 87-year-old woman in Madrid.
Those protests, along withparliament's rejectionlast month of government decrees aimed at curbing evictions and limiting rent pressures, prompted Sanchez to call the snap election. The government has largely blamed the right-wing opposition running many regions and municipalities for rising rents and insufficient housing supply.
But union leaders and many of the protesters have said they also hold the central government responsible for the housing crisis, as well as for. Spain's second fatal train crash this year.
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