Spanish gov't plugs labor reforms to wary rivals

By DANIEL WOOLLS Associated Press Writer

MADRID (AP) - The Spanish government on Monday tried to sell crucial labor reforms to skeptical opposition parties, while a major union promised to hold a general strike to protest the package.

The ruling Socialist Party said a team led by Labor Minister Celestino Corbacho was meeting with opposition parties to garner support for changes designed to loosen up rigid hiring and firing rules, encourage companies to take on workers and resurrect a moribund economy with a 20 percent jobless rate.

The government has said it will approve the reforms in a Cabinet meeting Wednesday so Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero - under intense pressure over Spain's debt and deficit loads - can take it with him to an EU summit in Brussels the next day.

The Socialists lack a majority in Parliament and will need to win votes from the opposition, or at least some abstentions, to have a bill pass. The government says the proposal - a decree that cannot be amended - will be voted June 22.

The government has fashioned its own labor market reform proposals after long-running talks between unions and Spain's main business federation collapsed last week. Not all of the details have been released, but Corbacho has said the government is considering making it easier and cheaper for money-losing companies to lay people off.

Fernando Lezcano, a spokesman for one of Spain's main labor unions, Workers Commissions, said Monday that a general strike will be called to protest the proposed reforms. The date of the strike will be announced after a meeting Tuesday, he said at a news conference.

A strike last week by civil servants protesting an average 5 percent wage cut drew a weak response, raising questions about whether the unions had the support for a fullblown walkout.

Zapatero only narrowly dodged a crisis last month when the legislature passed euro15 billion ($18.19 billion) in deficit-reducing spending cuts by just one vote. The public sector salary cuts were part of this package.

Zapatero's bill - and perhaps his government - survived only when small regional parties abstained, although they made clear they were fed up with Zapatero's handling of Spain's economic crisis and abstaining only to keep Spain from meeting the fate of Greece.