The 11N general strike for housing and wages exceeds all forecasts: unions describe the day as a "success" with more than four million strikers

The general strike of 11N has exceeded the forecasts of Comisiones Obreras (CCOO) and the Unión General de Trabajadoras y Trabajadores (UGT) in its first assessment of the day. Their general secretaries, Unai Sordo and Pepe Álvarez, have called a day with special strength in industry a "success" and with uneven follow-up depending on the territory. For its part, the Tenants' Union estimates that about four million people have joined the strike during the morning, a provisional estimate by the organization.

"It is a successful call," Sordo said in Madrid, where he highlighted the support in factories and workplaces with a greater union presence. "It turned out better than expected by the organizers," added Álvarez, who asked political parties to listen to those who stopped to demand affordable rents, decent wages, and better public services.

It is the first 24-hour general strike called jointly by the two main unions since November 2012. This time, the impulse came from the housing movement, which gained strength after the eviction of Maricarmen Abascal in Madrid. Her case mobilized neighborhoods and ended up bringing to workplaces a demand that unions have linked to the loss of purchasing power.

Automotive and ports mark the first balance of the strike

CCOO places the follow-up of the first shifts at 90% in the automotive sector, with strikes in large plants such as Seat in Martorell, and in the ports of Valencia and Algeciras. The unions estimate 85% in the meat industry and 82% in garbage collection. In services, there are also differences. CCOO estimates the follow-up at 60.8% in commerce and 25.4% in the financial sector.

By territories, CCOO has estimated the follow-up in Catalonia at 84% in its first assessment, while the unions have placed the initial data for Castilla-La Mancha and Extremadura at around 41%. The protest has been visible at the accesses to Mercabarna and the Zona Franca and in the columns of demonstrators who have arrived from different points to the center of Barcelona.

The employer associations CEOE and Cepyme maintain that activity has continued normally in most sectors and that the strike has been more noticeable where there is greater union presence. Electricity demand provides another measure of how the morning has evolved. At 11:00 AM, it was 7.5% below Red Eléctrica's forecast. In its midday balance, the employer association placed the drop at around 5%. Demand serves to observe changes in activity, while participation figures come from each organization's estimates.

CCOO and UGT announce legal actions for charges against pickets

The general secretary of CCOO in Madrid, Paloma López, has put the number of injured trade unionists at 20 and has announced that her organization will take the police action to court. López has denounced the use of batons and pepper spray against informative pickets. In Mercamadrid, the union counts 13 people attended by health services. The National Police maintain that the person arrested in that enclosure threw a fence at an agent.

The Tenants' Union has also reported that at least eight people were injured in the garages of the Municipal Transport Company (EMT) of Carabanchel and were transferred to Hospital 12 de Octubre. The charges later reached Gran Vía, where the Police arrested at least two people after hundreds of demonstrators gathered at the intersection with Montera street.

The first police reports add up to at least 40 arrests. The Ministry of Interior reported 26 arrests and 476 incidents registered by the National Police and the Civil Guard between 10:00 p.m. on Tuesday and 11:00 a.m. on Wednesday. To these arrests are added the 13 that the Ertzaintza reported until 10:00 a.m. and one by the Mossos d'Esquadra in Barcelona the day before.

The Tenant Union demands lower rents one day before the vote in Congress

The spokesperson for the Tenant Union, Alicia del Río, has warned that the protest appeals to "all governments," as well as to employers and landlords. The organization demands that rents be lowered, that contracts be indefinite, and that empty homes be mobilized. Del Río has positioned 11N as the beginning of "a new cycle of struggles" that will continue after the general elections on November 29.

The first debate on these demands will arrive this Thursday, when the Permanent Deputation of the Congress votes on the two housing decrees. The one that extends protection against evictions of vulnerable households and allows certain leases to be extended has, in principle, the necessary votes to go ahead. The second, which provides for compensating the tenant if the owner terminates the lease in the cases covered by the norm, reaches the vote without a majority.