Saturday, 12th December 2009 - 17:48CET
Tens of thousands of union members marched through the centre of Madrid today waving flags and holding banners denouncing plans to cut their pay and benefits to revive Spain's slumping economy.
"Don't let them take advantage of the crisis," read a banner draped on a podium where leaders of Spain's biggest unions said workers would not bear the brunt of efforts to restore competitiveness and economic growth in the country which has experienced a sharp downturn.
"The priority has to be the fight against unemployment," General Workers Union (UGT) leader Candido Mendez said.
He spoke beneath a historic arch now surrounded by roadworks as part of massive public works programmes which have given many workers jobs during the crisis.
Socialist Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero has promised unions he will not accede to corporate calls to relax rigid labour laws, which business leaders say have helped push unemployment close to 20 percent.
But Zapatero has said he hopes unions and companies can reach a deal on improving workplace competitiveness by the first quarter of next year in government-sponsored talks.
Union leaders say they are in favour of the so-called "social dialogue" with business leaders.
But the demonstration, with marchers coming from all over Spain in hundreds of buses before gathering in the city's Independence Square, was to remind the government of the unions' power to get people out onto the streets if pushed too far.
Marchers carried placards protesting lost jobs and one group set up a stall for people to throw eggs at photographs of business and political leaders including Zapatero.
Mendez warned the prime minister not to cut government spending before the economy, which was long distorted by a now defunct property boom, had returned to health.
The gravity of the problem was underscored earlier this week when credit-rating agency Standard & Poor's said Spain had two years to get its fiscal house in order or it could face a debt downgrade.
