Hotel workers warn of summer strike

Both representatives said that much will depend on meetings to be held next week, on 5th and 7th June, with management from the Balearic Hotel Federation. On what has become an increasingly fragile table of negotiation are a salary increase being demanded by hotel workers of around three percent and calls being made by hotel management to their staff for “flexibility” in working practices.

Hotel managers, under pressure to keep their businesses as going concerns during a time of uncertainty and growing competition in the tourist industry, are not wanting to cede any salary increase at all this season, and are keen for their staff to work more than two shifts but less time in each. The hotels say that workers may be asked under exceptional circumstances when the season is at its height to work some extra hours.

The unions meanwhile say that if they were to agree to the latter, it would be tantamount to taking a step back 30 years when hoteliers allegedly rode rough shod over workers' rights in their eagerness to maximise profitability.

Copete said yesterday that although he wasn't prepared to release details of planned protests, he suggested they would be “growing in stature all the time.” He claimed that the ball was now in the court of management and that he hoped that they would reconsider softening their negotiating stance. “This is not the first time that hotel workers have been on strike over their basic rights, and if it should prove necessary, we will do it again.” Inmaculada de Benito who is the President of the Hoteliers Federation said in response to the union threat that it was “irresponsible” of the UGT and CCOO representatives to announce planned industrial action before next week's meetings in the context of it being potentially damaging to the tourist industry in the Balearics, right at the start of the high season.

Appeal to responsibility
Balearic government spokesman and Education Minister Rafael Bosch said he had “maximum respect” for the two sides of the negotiating table but added that because tourism remained the driving force of the regional economy, both parties should bear in mind the devastating impact that a summer of demonstrations and strikes would have on the hotel industry.

Bosch said that a recent report undertaken by the BBVA banking organisation had shown that the Balearics is capable of emerging from the economic crisis under its own steam thanks to its specialisation in the tourist industry. “The sector is key to the recovery of the national economy,” Bosch said.

His views were echoed by Spain's Secretary of State for Tourism, Isabel Borrego who made an appeal yesterday during a visit she was making to Ibiza to the unions, asking that they “think seriously” before jeopardising the success of the tourist season in the Balearics. A great deal is at stake, she said.