SPANISH union bosses have issued an update after threatening to launch strikes in hotels across the Balearic Islands this month.
The unions threatened to blockade Majorca’s Palma airport and launch protests across popular tourist attractions in a major escalation to a dispute over pay for hotel staff.
And hotels, restaurants and clubs in the Balearic Islands were gearing up to be hit by walkouts as some 180,000 workers threatened a strike.
The unions announcement yesterday of chaos-causing demos in airport arrivals and departures led to last-minute talks with employer representatives and a 13.5 pay increase offer union bosses accepted.
And, just hours after threatening to blockade the airport on July 10, union bosses confirmed they have called off the Balearic Islands hotel strike that was due to affect Irish holidaymakers.
UGT Balears, one of the two main unions behind the planned walkout over five days in July, confirmed overnight: “The strike in the hotel and catering sector has been called off following the pre-agreement between us and hotel bosses for the new collective agreement.
“Salary increase of 13.5 per cent in three years, the largest increase in the history of the Balearic Islands.”
The Majorca Hotel Business Federation confirmed around the same time: “An agreement in principle has been reached and the UGT has agreed to desist from the strikes it had announced and cancel them.”
Second union CCOO is now expected to come on board along with employer representatives in the bar-restaurant and nightclub sectors which would also have been affected by strikes although to a lesser degree.
The final agreement sealing the eleventh-hour deal is expected to be signed next week.
The airport blockade threat is thought to have been key to the decision of unions and hotel employer representatives in Majorca to start negotiating again after the breakdown of talks and strike announcements last Thursday.
The UGT announced around midday yesterday a demonstration at Palma airport would take place on the first day of planned strike action on July 10 “in both the departures and arrivals areas.”
It added in a statement: “The aim is to ‘block these accesses’ to the Balearic capital’s aerodrome.”
It also announced demonstrations in other key tourists areas including Magaluf for the same day.
Walkouts involving an expected 180,000 hotel and catering sector workers in Majorca, Ibiza and Menorca had also been announced for July 18, 19, 25 and 31.
The salary rise over three years will see workers get six per cent extra this year, four per cent next and 3.5 per cent in 2027.
Last week an eleventh-hour deal was announced to avert the threat of hotel strike action in Tenerife and three of the other Canary Islands in the Atlantic archipelago.
The lifting of the strike threat in the Balearic Islands is not expected to impact on actions planned for this summer by groups protesting against over-tourism.
A massive anti-tourist demonstration took place in Palma on June 15, with government officials saying 8,000 people took part but organisers putting the number at 30,000.
Around 100 noisy activists banging drums surrounded upmarket eatery Cappuccino Borne next to a McDonald’s in the centre of Palma after their protest finished.
Protestors swarmed a table of dining tourists and chanted “go home” and “go to hell“.
Police moved in to ease tension as the demonstrators held up cardboard posters reading: “As You Come, I Have To Go.”
The protestors also chanted ‘’The Streets Will Always Be Ours’, Go Home’ in English and ‘No Balconing’ in a reference to the young tourists who have traditionally been blamed by islanders for the dangerous practice of jumping from Magaluf hotel balconies into their swimming pools or trying to climb between balconies while under the influence of drink and drugs.
The Balearics Islands Government vice-president Antoni Costa said afterwards their behaviour had been “unacceptable.”
