Spain's bankers to strike as job cuts loom
Workers at three of Spain's bailed-out banks will stage strikes in coming weeks as they fight mass layoffs, unions said on Monday, spreading industrial unrest to a sector where walkouts have so far been rare.
Spain was forced to ask Europe for up to 100 billion euros ($132.9 billion) to help its weakest banks last year and four of the lenders it took over, including Bankia, have to cut thousands of jobs and shrink their balance sheets as a condition of their rescue.
While the banks, crippled by a property bubble that burst five years ago, have hogged headlines, employees have so far mostly kept a low profile even as protests become a way of life elsewhere in Spain.
But about 20,000 layoffs planned for 2013, almost 10 percent of the total, could reduce the workforce to levels last seen in 1975, data from the unions showed - the year dictator General Francisco Franco died, marking the start of the country's transition to democracy.
Alarmed at the scale of cuts, employees from across the industry will demonstrate on Jan. 23, while workers from Bankia, Banco de Valencia and NovaGalicia Banco will strike on Feb. 6 and hold partial strikes before then.
Unions blasted the planned cutbacks, saying they were unaware that Brussels had set out conditions imposing specific numbers of job reductions.
"You can't threaten employees with redundancies that will be compensated with up to 20 days pay for every year worked, and then claim that these entities have a value ... the viability (of the
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