Spain: General strike over housing costs before national election

A first in 14 years, a nationwide general strike, with Spain's two main labor unions joining in. Starting at the stroke of midnight Tuesday, workers began gathering in city squares, followed by early morning blockades of bus depots. Protesters also blocked main through fares, some even stepping onto highways. They also momentarily interrupted a television program to ensure that their message was heard. Strikers also gathered at public transportation hubs nationwide. Among those commuters that had to travel, despite the mass disruptions, some support the strike, others do not. I'm 36 years old. I'm 36 years old and I still can't move out on my own. And I'm still not sure how I'll manage. Rents and house prices keep going up. It's simply impossible. It's impossible. It's impossible. I don't see what good this strike is doing. I don't understand it. I'm certainly not in favour of it. The strike's official slogan is Salaries, Housing Prices. While anger is palpable over wages and the cost of living, it's Spain's housing crisis that's created the most anger. The average rent in Spain has nearly doubled in the past decade, and the nation has a deficit of some 750,000 homes, a figure that's expected to hit a million by 2028. The outrage comes after an 87-year-old woman, Marie Carmen, was evicted from her home in September. Her subsequent death spawned even more anger and weeks of protests. After the government's housing proposals to curb evictions and rents were rejected by Parliament, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez called an election. It's slated for November 29, and his Socialist Party hopes to capitalize on the anger and shift attention away from a series of corruption cases and a deadly train crash last month.