Spaniards Hold Mass Protests Against Labor Reforms

Hundreds of thousands of protesters were marching throughout Spain on Sunday in the first large-scale show of anger over new labor reforms that make it easier for companies to fire workers and pull out of collective bargaining agreements. Union organizers said around 1 million people had marched by mid-afternoon, but official figures were not released.


Ironically, this was the same day the Popular Party held their conference in Sevilla. "If we want Spain to grow and create employment, we had to do what we've done," Rajoy said at his Popular Party's annual congress in southwestern Seville on Sunday. Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy's government passed the package of reforms nine days ago in an effort to shake up a labor market seen as one of Europe's most rigid and to encourage hiring in a country battling the highest unemployment rate in the eurozone, at nearly 23 percent.


"Workers who've got jobs now are worried these reforms will make it easy to lose them, and in current conditions, those who don't have work are going to find it impossible to get a job," an office worker said.


^ Do you agree with the following statement or not? Will this package help unemployment?

`Dont Cut Our Rights¨