Asturian miners' strike of 2012  The 2012 Asturian miners' strike was an industrial dispute involving more than 8,000 coal miners in the Spanish autonomous community of Asturias. The geographer David Featherstone has described the strike as "one of the most dramatic forms of anti-austerity protest to emerge in the wake of the [financial crisis of 2007–08]." There was a similar strike, in both size and scope, in 1934. The coal mining industry has played a part in the local economy of the provinces of Asturias and León since the Roman era. The region also has a history of militancy: an uprising in 1934 led by miners took place but was crushed by General Franco; and a miners' strike which began in Asturias in 1962 involved nearly 500,000 workers and was the first time under Franco that a workers' movement had won significant concessions from the state. Miners also engaged in protests against privatisation and industrial restructuring in the 1980s and 1990s. In 2010 the miners were successful in another dispute, which resulted in legislation supporting the coal industry. The Spanish coal industry had been in decline since the 1990s as subsidies were phased out, however, resulting in a significant reduction in the number employed by the industry. Between 1990 and 2015 coal extraction in Spain dropped by 76.5 percent and the number of workers employed in the industry declined by 85.7 percent. In order to comply with European Union regulations requiring Spain to reduce its fiscal deficit, and aiming to end state aid for the electric power industry by 2018, in 2012 the Spanish government announced plans to reduce subsidies for 40 mines from €300 million to €110 million. The subsidies were designed to bolster Spain's energy sector as well as to support programmes that would transfer mineworkers to jobs in green infrastructure development. The Unión General de Trabajadores, Spain's largest trade union said such a reduction would lead "to the shutdown of coal mining and the abandonment of the mining districts to their fate." Miners wanted the subsidies to continue until 2018, and argued that Spain's limited energy resources meant it must keep the mines open in order to protect itself against future shocks in the energy market. Miners began their strike in late May 2012. The strike included attacks on police and offices of the ruling People's Party. Miners attacked police with rockets, stones, nuts and bolts, and blocked up to 60 roads a day including 16 main roads and motorways and two railway lines. Miners also occupied a mineshaft and erected barricades made from burning tyres.