The general strike in Spain was in full swing with some growers’ organisations speaking out against it on Wednesday this week.
Others claimed it was having little impact in their region but the strikes have dominated the country. Wednesday saw violent clashes in a strike called by two Spanish unions as protesters from across Europe demonstrated at widespread austerity measures.
Growers association Asaja Murcia said it did not support the strike. Secretary general Alfonso Gálvez Caravaca said: “Now is the time to work more than ever, although we respect every worker’s right to support the protest.” He said he believed workers’ unions UGT and CCOO were not supporters of the plight of growers. “They have never been concerned with the problems of the countryside or rural issues…That is why we do not support the protest.”
Gálvez called for respect for workers who wanted to work and for those businesses who wanted to keep their packhouses open.
A spokesman for growers’ organisation Ava-Asaja added: “In Valencia support for the strike appears to be minimal.”
Reports from the unions involved in the strike action themselves put support in the eastern Spanish region at more than 70 per cent of workers, putting it in fifth place among the autonomous regions behind Asturias, Castille-La Mancha, Catalonia and Galicia.
