In the first quarter of 2012, labor unions in Spain and Portugal failed to influence their governments as the two countries reformed labor laws. In January, the Portuguese government succeeded in dividing the unions and passing labor reforms without major setbacks. In Spain, unions were able to unite and protest labor reform on March 29. However, Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy's government passed the labor reform without having to introduce substantial changes in the text, since Spanish unions are particularly weak — accounting for only 16 percent of the active labor force. While these recent events show that unions have lost power, they are only part of a long-term phenomenon: union membership across Europe has declined steadily in the past four decades.