scarymary
05-13-2010, 09:31 AM
By now, I'm sure we have all heard about what is happening in Greece. If not, you are obviously living under a rock. Well, as fate would have it, Spain is next to force cuts to their public employees checks and benefits. Will we see the same protests and violence there as we did in Greece? My guess would be............why, yes, I believe we will. Here is a little story from Reuters:
Civil service wages cut by 5 pct in 2010
MADRID, May 12 (Reuters) - Spain will cut wages of state employees and slash investment spending, sparking union anger at the government's toughest moves yet to rein in a budget deficit some feared could ignite a bigger version of the Greek crisis.
Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero's fresh austerity measures came days after a $1 trillion fund was established to prop up weaker euro zone states and hours after U.S. President Barack Obama pressed him to be "resolute" in efforts to implement economic reforms. [ID:nN11663212]
"We need to make a singular, exceptional and extraordinary effort to cut our public deficit and we must do so now that the economy is beginning to recover," Zapatero told parliament as he detailed the cuts totalling 15 billion euros ($19.05 billion) in 2010 and 2011.
Civil service salaries will be cut by 5 percent in 2010 and frozen in 2011, said Zapatero. The move was badly received by unions which, while so far maintaining good relations with the Socialist government, have already put the brakes on a government move to raise the retirement age to 67 from 65.
"The proposed cuts merit outright rejection," said Ignacio Fernandez Toxo, leader of Spain's biggest union confederation, Comisiones Obreras, saying that he would not rule out any action to protest against the measures.
But the leader of the second-largest labour grouping, Candido Mendez of the Union General de Trabajadores, sounded a more conciliatory note, saying that he still thought it possible unions might agree to labour market reforms.
"These measures reinforce all (those) ... taken over the weekend in Brussels and are what the market was waiting for, although not many people thought the prime minister would dare to take them," said Nicolas Lopez, of Madrid brokerage M&G Valores.
But others warned that the cuts, however harsh, may not be enough for Spain, whose public sector is coming under strain from the huge debts accumulated by companies and households during a property boom.
Unemployment has hit 20 percent, and economists already doubt that Spain's relatively uncompetitive economy will be able to reach the levels of economic growth that underpin the government's deficit forecasts.
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSLDE64B0F920100512
Civil service wages cut by 5 pct in 2010
MADRID, May 12 (Reuters) - Spain will cut wages of state employees and slash investment spending, sparking union anger at the government's toughest moves yet to rein in a budget deficit some feared could ignite a bigger version of the Greek crisis.
Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero's fresh austerity measures came days after a $1 trillion fund was established to prop up weaker euro zone states and hours after U.S. President Barack Obama pressed him to be "resolute" in efforts to implement economic reforms. [ID:nN11663212]
"We need to make a singular, exceptional and extraordinary effort to cut our public deficit and we must do so now that the economy is beginning to recover," Zapatero told parliament as he detailed the cuts totalling 15 billion euros ($19.05 billion) in 2010 and 2011.
Civil service salaries will be cut by 5 percent in 2010 and frozen in 2011, said Zapatero. The move was badly received by unions which, while so far maintaining good relations with the Socialist government, have already put the brakes on a government move to raise the retirement age to 67 from 65.
"The proposed cuts merit outright rejection," said Ignacio Fernandez Toxo, leader of Spain's biggest union confederation, Comisiones Obreras, saying that he would not rule out any action to protest against the measures.
But the leader of the second-largest labour grouping, Candido Mendez of the Union General de Trabajadores, sounded a more conciliatory note, saying that he still thought it possible unions might agree to labour market reforms.
"These measures reinforce all (those) ... taken over the weekend in Brussels and are what the market was waiting for, although not many people thought the prime minister would dare to take them," said Nicolas Lopez, of Madrid brokerage M&G Valores.
But others warned that the cuts, however harsh, may not be enough for Spain, whose public sector is coming under strain from the huge debts accumulated by companies and households during a property boom.
Unemployment has hit 20 percent, and economists already doubt that Spain's relatively uncompetitive economy will be able to reach the levels of economic growth that underpin the government's deficit forecasts.
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSLDE64B0F920100512