Well, the strike appears to be over, although a few isolated unions still refuse to return to work the unusually forceful approach taken by the Spanish government seems to have broken the back of the strikers. Petrol & diesel has reappeared in almost all the petrol stations, shops are restocking and the press has returned to it’s usual round of stories like “youngster destroys a bar in Zaragoza with a chain saw – reason unknown”.
Meanwhile, the Government has had a radical change of heart in it’s immigration policy – a year ago saw an iniciative to pay immigrants to come to Spain to work, now it says it will pay a million of these workers to return as there is no work for them. If they return their resident and work permit and return to their non EU home country, they will receive all of the Social Security money they have accumulated in two payments, 40% before leaving and the rest upon arrival. Anything to keep those unemployment figures down, eh?