Fiona Govan
ANGRY protests have become a daily occurance in Spain’s southern city of Cadiz in recent days as workers take to the streets to demand higher wages.
On Wednesday, metalworkers continued their strike for a ninth day, barracading roads across the city and setting container fires.
The protests turned violent on Tuesday with police using tear gas and firing rubber bullets to disperse strikers.
Images of riot police moving in on protestors and beating them with batons were broadcast on Spanish media.
The street protests have coincided with industrial action called by those employed in metalwork where three out of every four jobs are temporary.
In this case strikers are not protesting lay-offs or the closure of a company but rather expressing anger at stagnating wages amid rising inflation that is driving up living costs.
Cadiz, coastal city with a population of 116,000, is one of Spain’s poorest, where the main industry is shipbuilding and unemployment is over 23% far above the national average of 15%.
Metalworkers, who number 30,000 employees from close to 6,000 companies, called an indefinite strike beginning Tuesday November 16..
Unions want the rising inflation, recorded at 5% in October, to be reflected in their salaries, while industry leaders are instead offering 2% salary hikes over the next three years.
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