Huelga

29 March 2012

"Open the gates and seize the day. Don´t be afraid and don´t delay. Nothing can break us. No one can make us give our rights away... Arise and sieze the day!"

I can´t help but think of this song from the musical Newsies today--the day of the general huelga (strike) in Spain.

However, in all seriousness, workers from a variety of sectors (such as education and transportation) are striking today in protest of cuts that are being made by the current government.

Here in Alicante, a majority of the teachers at my school weren't at work today since they were protesting the cuts made to their salaries. Those that did come were offering minimal services. So most of the time the kids were playing outside or watching a movie.

I contemplated striking today as well. I completely agree with the reason that the teachers are striking, and I wanted to give them my support as I did with the manifestaciones (protests) that I attended. However, in this case, I felt that it was more important for me to go to work. I only get to be in Spain for this school year, and I want to aprovechar (take advantage) of the time that I have here. Even though most of my kids didn´t come to school today, I got to play games in English with the ones that did come and the kids ultimately got more one-on-one practice.

Other than the disruptions in the TRAM schedule, everything was fairly peaceful here. Unfortunately (for me), the TRAM also offered minimal services which meant that I got to work at little late. I had to choose to arrive an hour early or 15 minutes late. I didn't have a class first hour so I decided to go a little later.

That evening there was a protest, but no one was hurt--as was the case in bigger cities such as Barcelona and Madrid.