Spain’s Union of Small Farmers (UPA) has announced that its members will take part in 29 March’s general strike, which is being staged to protest against the Spanish government’s decision to impose huge, sweeping austerity cuts.
With the new Partido Popular government set to make €40bn in spending cuts and taxes, and company taxes and electricity charges rumoured to be among targets, thousands of Spanish employees are expected to take part in a general strike.
One of the country’s largest agricultural unions, UPA, has now pledged its backing for the protest, arguing that the future of small producer families is being “put in danger” by the severe programme of reforms and cuts.
“Farmers and the rural world as a whole are suffering as a result of policies that are obsessed with reducing the budget deficit and halting investment and credit lines, and for this reason, we will be supporting the strike,” the union said.
UPA said its support for the industrial action had been influenced by the “critical situation” facing the Spanish and European agricultural sector, including the deregulation of markets, uncontrolled imports, increasing production costs and the reduction in prices paid to producers.
It added: “The cuts to investments, spending and support to such a strategic sector as agriculture places under threat the food production model across the whole European Union.”
