Beginning March 5, 2021, non-police personnel within police offices in Spain are planning to go on strike for up to two months, effecting thousands of citizens. The union representing the Civil Servants of the Interior (CCOO) has called these strikes in response to the diminishing rights of the non-police personnel that they attribute to leadership of the Ministry of the Interior and the Dirección General de Policía (DGP).
Unless the strike is called off at the last minute, it will take place in many of the 1,500 National ID and passport renewal posts within the Spanish territory, in addition to the immigration offices.
The strike will initially occur every Friday for two months. If there is no agreement reached with the CCOO by April 30, the union has advised that further full days of strikes will be called. The union has specifically targeted the busiest day of the week in terms of document renewal submissions.
The result of the strike could mean massive numbers of cancellations of appointments for DNI, passport and foreign national ID card renewals. These are appointments that foreign nationals have already been on a waiting list for several months to obtain. For all other citizens wishing to renew their documentation, this long delay for an appointment will be equally inconvenient. Many will have to travel to an alternative office to complete the renewal procedure as the delays at the preferred office will be prohibitively long.
Another result of the CCOO strike is the impact this may have on police operations, especially those who travel to overseas missions and whose finances for these operations are managed by the personnel on strike. Without this administrative support, deployments may need to be delayed or cancelled.
For further information on the upcoming strikes in Spain and the impact on document renewal, please contact the Sterling Lexicon immigration team.