What changes on El Hierro on 11 November?
On Wednesday 11 November 2026, a nationwide general strike halts work for 24 hours, including in the Canaries. So far there is no separate strike notice or rally for El Hierro.
No minimum services are known for TransHierro, the ferries, the airport or the island's health services. The authorities set such rules, so anyone wanting certainty should check the BOC (the Canary Islands official gazette) and the Canarian government.
A travel advisory from October warns of possible flight cancellations and transport delays in Spain. Another source says no flights, trains or metro services are confirmed as cancelled so far.
What should visitors and residents do before Wednesday?
Anyone flying or taking a ferry on 11 November should ask the airline or operator first. There is no statement from airport operator AENA, because it was not asked.
The travel advisory expects shops and museums to close, but names no places in the Canaries. Anyone with an appointment or a museum visit planned for Wednesday should phone ahead.
In Catalonia, local transport must run 25% of its service at peak times. Nothing follows from that for the Canaries or El Hierro, as no figure has been published there.
CCOO Canarias hopes the authorities will not impose abusive minimum services. Union representative Vanesa Frahija said so at an appearance in Las Palmas on 22 October.
Who can strike, and what applies to the self-employed?
Employees with a work contract may join the strike, in the private and public sectors. The lost day is unpaid, but sanctions are not allowed.
Military personnel and certain groups of civil servants are excluded. The source does not say which groups.
The self-employed have no right to strike, but may keep their business closed to show support. Those who do forgo that day's takings, and there is no strike pay.
One opinion piece doubts that many self-employed people will follow the call. The association UPTA, led by president Eduardo Abad, disagrees: the self-employed have “mil motivos”, a thousand reasons, to strike.
The association UATAE also backs the strike. Our research found no position from the ATA association and no explicit government call for the self-employed to close.
Who is calling the strike, and what do the unions demand?
CCOO and UGT are calling a joint general strike for the first time since 14 November 2012. Housing initiatives and the unions CIG, ELA and LAB are also taking part.
The slogan is “Salarios. Vivienda. Precio”, meaning wages, housing, prices. For the Canaries, the unions cite 211,000 empty homes.
By their account, renting out around 20% of them would ease the situation. That is not proven.
According to the unions, the Canaries have the lowest wages in Spain, about 500 euros below the national average. These too are their own figures.
UGT reports more than 3,600 affiliations of works councils, staff representatives and union branches, so organisations rather than individual workers. They include Seat, Airbus, Iberia, Glovo, Zara, DomusVi and Securitas.
Who criticises the strike?
The employers' associations CEOE and Cepyme call the strike “inadmisible”, meaning unacceptable. They say the demands are a matter for legislation and the budget.
CEOE chief Antonio Garamendi calls it electoral tactics, not a labour dispute; he first announced a challenge, but the CEOE will not file one in advance. The unions reject the label “political strike”, and Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez publicly defended their right to call it.
According to a report, the unions registered the strike on Friday 23 October. They filed it with the Dirección General de Trabajo (the labour directorate) in Santa Cruz de Tenerife.
What comes after the strike?
The strike falls only 18 days before the election. The campaign starts on Friday 13 November at 00:00, and Spain elects a new parliament on Sunday 29 November 2026.
No turnout figures are available yet. CCOO official Ignacio Hernández expects an “éxito rotundo”, a resounding success.
Daniel Casal of the Federación Sindical Canaria does not rule out a later general strike on the Canary Islands alone. No date has been named for it.
Rally locations in the Canaries and transport restrictions on El Hierro remain unclear. Anyone travelling on 11 November is best off waiting for word from the airline or ferry operator.