One group of workers in Spain has come together to stick a spanner in the works of austerity misery. Or more specifically, in the locks.
After a disastrous year in which 50,000 families were evicted from their homes after defaulting on mortgage payments – and a spate of eviction-related suicides - locksmiths in the city of Pamplona have called a halt to their part in evictions.
The decision was taken three weeks ago at the first meeting of the Assembly of Professional Locksmiths of Pamplona (the city more famous for allowing drunken idiots to flee angry bulls). It was the only item on the agenda and was unanimously approved. Locksmith companies have seen a vast increase in the rate of evictions; from one a month to around three a week.
Explaining their new stance, locksmith Iker de Carlos said: “We’re people and as people we can’t continue carrying out evictions when people are killing themselves... We know that we will not start a revolution, but we want to serve as a example to Navarre [the region] society on how to fix an unfair situation."
The national Union of Security Locksmiths are also (partically) refusing to be the banks' lackeys. The union of 300 member companies, and more than 2,000 workers, have now stopped cooperating in evictions in some circumstances. Among those they are boycotting are situations where entire families, the elderly, young children and disabled people would be kicked onto the street.
In times of crisis it's nice to see a bit of humanity/class solidarity. With re-possession of homes increasing daily here it's be great if the bailiffs in jobsworth Britain would give it a rest.