Drat, his data source is 'Eurostat', which means trying to find the data he would have used nearly 18 months ago is not easy to find. For example, when I searched for unit labour costs, most tables I could find were indexed to 2005=100, not 2000.
However, I did find a report from late 2011, called Labour Market Statistics which while using a 100 base for labour costs also had figures for earnings. The source for those (pre 2008) is the table earn_gr_nace which can be viewed here:
Eurostat Data Explorer. The initial view shows a subsection, excluding public services, so I went for the widest stat it has, which only excludes agriculture, fishing, household and extra-territorial.
The figures for Italy are missing, Spain starts in 2001 while Greece ends in 2003, but here are the figures I could get - Full time gross earnings in Euros, with purchasing power in brackets, followed by % of Germany's figures at the time
2001
Germany 34,500 (33094.6) 100 (100)
Greece 16,630 (20206.6) 47.0 (61.1)
Spain 17,873.8 (20937.9) 50.5 (63.3)
France 27,072 (26013.8) 76.5 (78.6)
Portugal 13,309 (15776.7) 37.6 (47.7)
2007 (Greece missing)
Germany 39,800 (39136.2) 100 (100)
Spain 22,176.5 (23882.4) 55.7 (61.0)
France 31,848.0 (29473.3) 80.0 (75.3)
Portugal 16,727.3 (19519.7) 42.0 (49.9)
Here's what I noticed. While the relative gap in earnings is closer in Euro terms, it is more likely to have fallen in terms of purchasing power (so, perhaps comparing to the graphs you saw, there is a difference in terms of inflation as well). And even where the gap closes, in terms of Euros Spaniards go from being 17,526 behind to being 17,623 behind, with the Portuguese going from being 22,091 behind to 23,072 behind. When you look at purchasing power, the gap widens further and even does over the French.
Which does also make me wonder if the article you posted, Sass, uses the data relating to its claims - it talks about wage restraint, but compares unit labour cost (wages are a major component of labour costs, but not the only one and the other factors may well vary over time). The data I looked at is wages. It does show that Spanish and Portuguese wages went up by 24-25% in 6 years (compared to 18% in France and 12% in Germany) but also that with purchasing power, German wages went up by 18% while Spanish and French by 13-14% (Portuguese at 24% again).
I don't think it is really all that clear cut. Yes, absolute wages in some European countries increased at a higher rate than they did in Germany, and while some saw comparable growth (basically Italy is the only one of the 5 that didn't), in real terms (the purchasing power of those wages) Germany increased faster than others, and widened the gap.