Crisis-hit Spanish bank workers called for nationwide protests on Wednesday, fuming over tens of thousands layoffs in the industry and lashing out against top executives they hold responsible.
The Spanish banking sector is still staggering from the blow of a 2008 property crash, which left lenders awash with bad loans.
Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy last year secured an agreement for a European Union rescue loan of up to 100 billion euros ($130 billion) to fix the banks’ balance sheets, and a first slice of 37 billion euros has already been pumped into stricken banks.
Unions say the result of the banking crisis has been tens of thousands of jobs axed for ordinary workers.
At the same time, they say, top executives, such as former Bankia chairman Rodrigo Rato and the former vice president of Bankia parent group BFA, Jose Luis Olivas, have escaped punishment.
Choosen excerpts by Job Market Monitor from
via Spain bank workers protest layoffs < Spanish news | Expatica Spain.
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Spanish banks meet unions to discuss huge layoffs
Representatives of two of Spain’s biggest banks are meeting with labor unions to discuss massive layoffs, hours ahead of protests by bank workers in seven cities.
Officials of Bankia, the nationalized lender which has received a bailout of €18 billion ($24 billion) from the 17 European Union countries that use the euro, met unions Wednesday to negotiate shedding some 6,000 staff. Unions representing Bankia workers have called evening protests in Madrid and six other cities.
via Spanish banks meet unions to discuss huge layoffs – Salon.com.
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