Irish tourists to face summer of disruptive hotel strikes on Spanish islands
Irish holidaymakers will face a summer of disruptive hotel strikes in the Balearic Islands after talks to avert walkouts broke down on Thursday evening.
Union chiefs decided to call six days of industrial action starting from July 10th.
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Further strikes have been scheduled for July 18th, 19th, 25th, 26th, and the 31st.
More than 180,000 workers employed in the hospitality sector in Majorca, Ibiza, and Formentera are expected to take action, affecting not just hotels but also restaurants and other nightspots.
Confirmation attempts to resolve outstanding pay and condition issues between workers' representatives and employers had failed emerged last night.
Union chiefs said they couldn't continue with talks given the fact they had lowered their wage increase demands to 16 per cent over three years but only 11 per cent was on the table.
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Thursday's crunch negotiations had been suspended around midday for a lunchtime break - but ended around 6:30pm with the strike action announcement coming soon after.
Balearic Islands hotel chiefs had increased a wage rise proposal that was already on the table to 9.5 per cent over three years at the start of the month, but were warned to expect a 'no' from worker representatives ahead of an earlier meeting on June 11th.
UGT union spokesman Jose Garcia Relucio described the offer at the time as 'more crumbs' and claimed hotel bosses wanted their workers to survive on tips.
He said after walking out of today's meeting: 'We'd come here to negotiate to improve the conditions of service industry workers, not to worsen them.'
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Javier Fich, president of the Majorca Hotel Business Federation, admitted the outcome of today's talks represented 'failure' on the part of negotiators and claimed union representatives had been 'too focused' on the wage increase issue.
The federation vice-president Maria Jose Agilo added: 'We regret and condemn the behaviour of the UGT union, which from the start has put on the table a strike threat which doesn't favour a good negotiating climate.'
The bad news from the Balearic Islands followed close on the heels of a last-minute deal to avert the threat of hotel strike action in Tenerife and three of the other Canary Islands in the Atlantic archipelago.
Union representatives and employers sealed the deal after reaching a wage rise increase agreement.
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