St. Michael's little summer and the General Strike

September 29 is St. Michael's Day and around this date, summer returns here with very sunny and warm afternoons.
This year the two big Spanish trade unions planned a general strike for this day. Around the countryside there were very few people participating; most of the farmers are self-employed and a lot of other workers had to guarantee minimum services as fire-fighters or nurses. It was more or less a public sector and big industry strike; and as train and bus drivers went on strike and others blockaded important roads other people had problems to get to their jobs.
The trade union's perspective is typical of European trade unions: they look to the interests of their members and do not care about the unemployed or the economy in general; the Spanish unemployment rate is around 20%, and for workers under 35 it is around 42%! Dominique Strauss-Kahn recently talked about the "lost generation" in this context. Around 40% of people with a university degree who have a job work in areas they are overqualified for. On the World Economic Forum's competitiveness index Spain has fallen to the same level as Costa Rica, I think, around position 40, while countries such as Sweden, Finland, Britain, Germany have climbed positions. Yesterday Moody's lowered Spain's debt rating.
Trade unions should become more realistic and wait if the recently introduced labor reform leads to more employment before opposing every change. And the goverment should continue with their reform program and raise the retirement age to 67; Spain has one of the oldest populations in Europe and due to its benign climate and good health system life expectation is continually growing.
Where the government is wrong is in cutting education funds: Spanish students are only mediocre in the PISA studies and its universities do not figure on the lists of the world's best. And there is a brain drain of graduates who do not find adequate employment to the north of Europe and America.