Impact of general strike "moderate," Spanish gov't says

Madrid, Agencias
A general strike Wednesday failed to paralyze Spain's transportation, public administration or service sectors, but car plants and other industrial facilities were forced to suspend production.

Spain's two biggest labor federations called the protest, the first of its kind here since Socialist Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero took office in April 2004, to protest an overhaul of employment law and the government's austerity program.

The federations, CCOO and UGT, estimated participation in the strike at 70 percent.

Labor Minister Celestino Corbacho declined to offer a figure, citing "uneven adherence" to the walkout and characterizing the effect of the strike as "moderate."

The strike was a success of participation and democracy, UGT leader Candido Mendez and CCOO chief Ignacio Fernandez Toxo said, demanding that the Zapatero administration reconsider its stance.

"With its economic policy, the government is between a rock and a hard place," Mendez told reporters during a large rally in Madrid, predicting the labor overhaul and austerity measures "will seriously harm the future of the Spanish economy and society."

The strike, Toxo said, gives the government a "magnificent opportunity" to "correct the course of its policies."

Thirty-eight people were arrested in strike-related incidents in Madrid, while youths damaged property and burned trash cans in Barcelona, where 43 people were arrested and 58 injured, including 30 police.

Spain has cut public employee pay, frozen pensions and taken other steps to curb spending as the economy struggles to emerge from recession and the jobless rate hovers at 20 percent.