No sign of end to bus dispute

THE third industrial stoppage by drivers employed by Palma's municipal bus company, (EMT), took place yesterday without incident between the hours of 5am and 7.30am. However, the EMT Works Committee is now preparing two days of 24 hour strikes in protest against the “totally inflexible” attitude of company chiefs in respect of recent salary negotiations where workers demanded a 5 percent rise against the company's 2 percent. Ramón Alcolea, secretary of the Works Committee, estimated that yesterday morning's protest affected between 30'000 and 35'000 people and was confident that a normal service had resumed following the stoppage without any unnecessary delays. This was in contrast to the industrial action the previous day when the bus company management had purportedly failed to liaise with Traffic Police. In spite of the industrial action, management have not asked the workers or their representatives to come to round table discussions to settle the dispute. As a consequence, full strikes are now planned for 9 and 11 March. Today, EMT management will begin negotiating the running of minimum services for those days.