A hot summer of discontent...

Attempts to try and avoid a pilots strike in Spain this summer broke down late on Tuesday night sending the domestic travel industry into pandemonium. Travel agents across the Balearics and Spain were yesterday swamped by travellers either trying to change their bookings with Iberia to another domestic airline or book now before the summer rush starts, with hundreds of thousands of travellers expected to avoid using Iberia during industrial action over the summer. But as if a pilots strike was not enough to throw the domestic tourist industry in to chaos, the Balearics look set to be hit by a summer coach strike which will not only hit the domestic market but more importantly the international package holiday industry. The CCOO union has called an all-Balearic coach strike for June 29, 30 and July 1 which will affect 300'000 tourists on one of the busiest weekends of the year so far. According to union sources, the CCOO is taking industrial action because of the coach industry's attitude towards the workforce's attempts negotiate a better deal for drivers. The union claims that it does not want to go ahead with industrial action and still hopes that an arbitration committee can reach a solution before the end of June. However, the omens do not look good and the region's fleet of 2'000 coaches looks set to come to a stand still on June 29 with 8'000 workers going on strike. The tourist industry has been stunned by the threat of industrial action, only last summer hundreds of thousands of tourists were hit by coach and taxi strikes and there are concerns about what the further three days of chaos and disruptions will do to the Balearics' already precarious image. The Balearic tourist industry is worried that the culmination of the two strikes will destroy the domestic market with mainlanders, fearing holiday chaos, opting to remain on mainland Spain and travel by car to their holiday destination.