CCOO and UGT have agreed to call a 24-hour general strike over wages and access to housing. The action is planned for the autumn, after Spain announced an early election but before the official campaign begins, according to the unions.
The unions made their decision on 5 October. Spain's election is set for 29 November.
CCOO and UGT plan a 24-hour general strike in the autumn. The final date still needs approval from their governing bodies.
The action would come before the official campaign begins. That date is 13 November.
This would be the first nationwide general strike jointly supported by CCOO and UGT during Pedro Sánchez’s time in government. ABC described it as the first such action in Spain in 14 years.
Neither union has taken this step during Pedro Sánchez's coalition government. Their leaders say the immediate issue is the lack of affordable housing. They are also presenting the strike as a political chance for the left.
UGT secretary-general Unai Sordo said the contest was still open. He argued that the left had an opportunity.
The timing has drawn a sharp response. Business groups and opposition parties say the strike is an electoral intervention. The unions say it concerns living and working conditions.
Yolanda Díaz has called for mobilisation and backed the strike from inside the government. That gives the action a direct political edge. The broader claim that no serving Labour minister had previously supported a general strike has not been independently confirmed.
CEOE has already questioned the stoppage's legality. Its legal team is examining whether to challenge the action once the demands and arrangements are clear.
Housing is the stated trigger. Wages are part of the dispute too.
The unions point to the failure of collective wage bargaining. They want a new AENC framework with pay rises of between 4% and 7%. They also want mechanisms to revise wages if inflation accelerates.
CCOO and UGT are negotiating with the Sindicato de Inquilinas and other civic organisations. That takes the mobilisation beyond the usual union structure.
The unions linked the mobilisation to the failure of two government housing decrees in Congress. They argue that the parliamentary defeats demonstrated the need for fresh measures on housing affordability and wages.
The housing crisis is real. Several figures used in the wider debate need more care.
Independent material available for this article has not reliably confirmed a shortfall of 750,000 homes or inflation of 9.5%. Transport, energy and water infrastructure also feature in the broader cost-of-living argument. Precarious work remains an issue behind fixed-discontinuous contracts.
The coalition government also refused to deflate personal income tax despite pressure on household budgets. Claims that this pushed tax revenue up by 58% since 2018, or by more than 116 billion euros, need to be checked against official budget and tax data.
Those numbers are not established facts.
CCOO and UGT are acting in the final stretch of the mandate. They have received substantially more public funding under Sánchez than under the previous conservative government.
Claims that the unions received 115 million euros since Sánchez came to power, excluding money linked to training, also require confirmation from official subsidy records. The funding has become part of the political argument around the strike.
Between 2013 and 2018, the Labour Ministry led by Fátima Báñez allocated 62 million euros to the unions. Under Yolanda Díaz, annual subsidies allegedly began rising from 2021 and reached 32 million euros in 2025.
The research material available here does not independently establish those figures. They cannot yet explain the timing of the strike as proven fact.
Union influence has weakened even as public funding increased. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, or OECD, put union density at about 12.5% at the start of the decade, compared with 18.3% in 2009.
Other groups have gained ground in the public debate. The Sindicato de Inquilinas has become highly visible during the housing protests.
Madrid's turnout dispute showed the tension already surrounding the housing issue. Government officials and organisers gave sharply different crowd estimates in Madrid's turnout dispute.
The new strike brings the major unions into that pressure. It turns a social grievance into an electoral confrontation.
PP spokesperson Ester Muñoz called the strike a "trampantojo". She accused the left of using union power to influence the ballot through confrontation.
Vox spokesperson Pepa Millán described CCOO and UGT as subsidised forces mobilised by Moncloa to create disorder. Both parties have said a PP and Vox government could cut union subsidies towards the levels of the Rajoy era.
CEOE and CEPYME dispute the labour basis of the action. They argue that housing demands are directed mainly at legislation and budget decisions, not employers.
CEOE president Antonio Garamendi called the strike political and said it could be unlawful. The government's position is more sympathetic.
Pedro Sánchez said he respected the constitutional right to strike over an issue that affects many workers, including access to housing.
The unions have reach.
CCOO and UGT together have almost two million members and around 230,000 union delegates. That gives the dispute more weight than a symbolic protest.
El País reported that the two unions had not previously called a nationwide general strike during Sánchez's tenure. ABC described the planned action as the first such strike in Spain in 14 years.
The date is still undecided. The unions say the stoppage will take place before the official campaign begins on 13 November. Housing, wages and the election calendar now sit in the same dispute.
