Read news from:
Austria
SHARE
COPY LINK

STRIKES

Doctors, teachers and taxi drivers strike across Catalonia

Wednesday is due to be a difficult day in Catalonia with planned stoppages across three different sectors in health, education, and taxi services.

Published: 25 January 2023 11:17 CET
Doctors, teachers and taxi drivers strike across Catalonia
Doctors are striking in Catalonia. Photo: Josep LAGO / AFP

Medical staff

The union Metges de Catalunya has called for five days of strikes for doctors and medical staff across Catalonia on Wednesday, January 25th and Thursday, January 26th, as well as February 1st, 2nd and 3rd.

They are demanding more resources and personnel for the Catalan public health system and between 25 to 28 patient appointments per work shift of 12 minutes each.

READ ALSO – Key dates: How planned health service strikes in Spain could affect you

After an unsuccessful meeting on Tuesday, January 24th to try and resolve issues and further talks on Wednesday morning that didn’t lead to any resolution, 25,000 health professionals from health centers and hospitals across the region have been called to strike. They have not demonstrated en masse like this in Catalonia since 2018.

Some 500 nurses and midwives also took to the streets on Tuesday, January 24th to ask for better working conditions. Their protest continues this Wednesday, when both nurses and doctors have gathered to march to Sants train station, where they are due to arrive at midday. 

The regional government has agreed to guarantee urgent health care as well as that of the neonatal units and vital chemotherapy and radiotherapy treatments.

Teachers

Teachers and other educational professionals have also been called to strike with two days of planned walkouts on Wednesday, January 25th and Thursday, January 26th.

After a series of unproductive negotiations with the Minister of Education, Josep Gonzàlez-Cambray, the unions Ustec, CCOO and UGT decided to go ahead with the stoppages.  

The unions have said that the simultaneous strikes in education and health make perfect sense as they are “two pillars” of society that should be a priority for the government.

The union Ustec demands that the regional government should invest 6 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP) in public education as established by the Education Law of Catalonia. They are also asking to reduce the ratios in the classes and improve the working conditions of educational professionals. 

Schools will remain open during these days, however, and minimum services have been established such as guaranteeing 50 percent of the staff in special education centers and nurseries.

Taxi drivers

Taxi drivers have also joined in the protests and will stage a four-hour strike on Barcelona’s Gran Via this Wednesday, against driver apps such as Free Now, Uber and Bolt.

Negotiations between The Elite Taxi union and the city council broke down last week and the union has called drivers to gather from 10am to 2pm on Gran Via with Plaza Tetuán and on Passeig de Gràcia.

Taxi drivers will also be voting on whether to protest during the Integrated Systems Europe (ISE) and Mobile World Congress fairs. ISE will be held from January 1st to February 3rd and Mobile World Congress from February 27th to March 2nd.  

Member comments

Log in here to leave a comment.
Become a Member to leave a comment.
For members

CLIMATE CRISIS

Will there still be drought restrictions in Spain after all the rain that’s fallen?

After an incredibly rainy Easter helped to refill Spain's dwindling reservoirs, some have started to wonder if drought restrictions planned or already implemented in certain parts of the country will be lifted.

Published: 3 April 2024 09:36 CEST
Updated: 7 April 2024 06:36 CEST
Will there still be drought restrictions in Spain after all the rain that's fallen?

If you were in Spain over Easter, you might’ve noticed that it was a pretty wet one. In fact, the rain was so bad in some parts of the country that many Holy Week processions had to be cancelled.

For many drought threatened parts of the country, however, notably Andalusia and Catalonia, though this was disappointing from a cultural point of view, it was welcome relief for the parched land and reservoirs.

Around areas of Cádiz, Granada and Málaga, some towns saw over 100 litres of rainfall per square metre in a single day.

In fact, rainfall during Semana Santa this year was more than three times the usual levels around most of the country, according to data from the State Meteorological Agency (Aemet).

READ ALSO: Tenerife to call drought emergency as Spain struggles with water shortages

Water reserve levels in Spanish reservoirs have risen to 63.1 percent of their capacity, 5.3 percent more than the week before. As such, many might now assume that the heavy rain over Easter has alleviated these drought problems, and there’s now no need for the restrictions implemented in some parts of Spain.

Is that the case – or will there still be drought restrictions in Spain such as lowering the water pressure from taps, a ban on filling swimming pools and watering gardens?

Andalusia

Known for its scorching summer temperatures, it had been many years since Andalusia had a wet Semana Santa. Though it will take the Andaluces a while to recover from their cancelled processions, many hope that the abnormal rainfall could ease potential water restrictions, at least for a while. In the southern region these have included water pressure restrictions and even overnight cut-offs in some towns.

La Junta de Andalucia has pledged to study its water saving measures once the runoff from the Easter rains is over and the authorities have a better idea of the picture moving forward. The signs seem positive, however: according to data from the Guadalquivir’s Automatic Hydrological Information System (SAIH), on 25th March capacity was at 14 percent — a week later it has exceeded 70 percent thanks to the rain.

However, La Junta had previously announced that, however heavy the rain, restrictions in some parts of the region, as well as works on the water system, would go ahead because the lack of water is “a structural problem.” One positive impact of the rains is that Andalusia now seems unlikely to need to ship in (literally) water from elsewhere because the reservoirs could, if managed properly, serve local areas for several years.

The rains have brought “relief” from the serious drought situation in Andalusia, said regional President Juanma Moreno, so that “it will not be necessary to bring in ships loaded with water” this summer. However, he also urged Andalusians to continue to be responsible “in the use and consumption of water.”

Catalonia

The other region at major risk of drought is Catalonia, where large swathes of the region had gone as long as three years without significant rainfall and the authorities have already introduced more extensive water saving measures.

Pere Aragonès, head of the Catalan regional government, recently declared a drought emergency after reservoirs in the northeastern region fell below 16 percent of their capacity, the benchmark set by authorities for the implementation of water-saving measures. Restrictions in Barcelona and 201 other municipalities are currently in place, affecting over 6 million people and almost 80 percent of the Catalan population.

READ ALSO: Barcelona to send letters to 24,000 residents who use too much water

Reservoir capacity levels improved somewhat following the Easter washout, but will likely do little to combat the long-term structural drought problems in the region.

The Easter rain helped, but not to the extent it did in Andalusia. According to data from the Catalan Water Agency, on Monday 1st April the reserves in internal basins were at 16.35 percent of their capacity.

Reservoirs in the Ter-Llobregat system now have a total of 103.59 cubic hectometres, pushing it over the lower threshold outlined in the region’s Special Drought Plan, which sets the state of emergency at 100 hectometres and below. This does not seem like a significant enough improvement for the government to change course on restrictions.

Is the drought over?

It’s true that the Easter downpours in Spain will go some of the way to refilling its dwindling reservoirs and perhaps, in some parts of the country, reduce the need for water restrictions. But this will only be for a short period of time – whether months or years.

Summer will soon be on the way, and if recent summers are anything to go by, they will be scorching hot. So hot, in fact, that they could likely undo some of the welcome relief over Easter with temperatures in the high-40s and likely weeks or months without any rainfall at all.

If anything, the short-term relief of this year’s rainy Easter points to the longer term structural problems that demonstrate the need for water restrictions in some regions. Such strong and sudden downpours (the storms killed four people in northern Spain) are symptoms of climate change and more extreme weather — of all types, whether rain, wildfires or gale force winds — that will likely worsen the drought conditions over time.

That’s why so many local and regional governments have been trying to implement restrictions, or at least get their residents to think about moderating their consumption. Following the Easter downpours, it seems some restrictions could be relaxed in Andalusia, if anywhere, but is less likely in Catalonia. In recent weeks, the government of Tenerife also declared a “hydraulic emergency” on the island amid the threat of extreme and long-lasting drought in the midland areas of Tenerife and a critical risk of water shortages in the coming months and years. 

The fact that the drought situation around Spain now seems to depend on abnormally heavy rain (described as ‘a miracle’ in the Spanish press) speaks volumes about its severity in the medium to long-term.

READ ALSO: Spain on track for warmest first quarter on record despite Easter downpour

SHOW COMMENTS