Unions celebrate May 1 in Spain, calling for more jobs

Labor unions celebrated May 1 with marches in some 80 cities in Spain on Sunday.

The marches were organized under the banner: "Against social and wage poverty, work and rights," and according to the unions were carried out with a "clear political aim" to try and give an impulse to a change in economic policy.

With next general elections almost certainly to be held at the end of June following the failure of four months of negotiation to form a coalition government in Spain, the leader of the Union Comisiones Obreras (CC.OO), Ignacio Toxo said May 1 had to give a "direct" message for politicians over the need for job creation.

The unions accompanied the marches with a manifesto calling for an end to the policies of "economic readjustment and cuts," and also the "devaluation of wages and the regressive labor reforms which have been carried out in recent years."

With no coalition government likely to be formed in the next 48 hours, Spain's Congress is expected to be officially dissolved at midnight on May 2 and new elections called for June 26. Endit