Bus strike continues

Calvia and Andratx were forced to endure a second consecutive day without public bus services with only three coach drivers turning up for work, only to be prevented from leaving the bus depot by protesting coach drivers angry over the failure by coach companies Catalina Marqués and Autocares Andratx to implement wage agreements. As many as 15'000 passengers, many of them tourists were left stranded yesterday and one of the members on the strike committee, Francisco Lomas, said that ”the industrial action is now 100 per cent, not a single bus rolled out today.” Local police were deployed to the coach depots, they failed to prevent pickets from blocking the path of the three drivers who tried to brave the picket lines. While thousands were forced to find alternative transport, Lomas said the coach drivers do not want to harm anybody, “all we want is for the companies to comply with the norms.”