Spain's two main unions, the General Workers Union and the Workers Commissions, have called for a general strike on March 29 to protest the government's austerity push.

The unions' leaders, Ignacio Fernández Toxo y Cándido Méndez, declared their strike "fair and necessary " and told press this morning that Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy's labor reforms were "the most regressive in the history of the democracy."

El País reports:

From the outset, the unions have opposed the labor reform, which they consider unfair with workers, inefficient to alleviate the economic situation and useless in the face of job creation.

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Spaniards have been hitting the streets by the thousands to protest the Spanish government's austerity reforms, which are making it easier for companies to fire workers.

“Workers who’ve got jobs now are worried these reforms will make it easy to lose them, and in current conditions, those who don’t have work are going to find it impossible to get a job,” office worker Manuela Silvela said at a protest against cuts in Spain earlier this month.

The latest unemployment figures from Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union, show the unemployment rate in Spain the highest in the EU at 23.3%, with the unemployment rate for those under 25 in Spain at a grim 49.9%.