Comisiones Obreras in Lanzarote has confirmed that finally there will be stoppages in the hotel and commerce sectors of the island during Holy Week, as it had been warning for weeks, given the lack of progress in updating collective agreements.
The union has been holding protests and gatherings at the doors of various businesses for months, and these scenes will be repeated in the coming days, but also accompanied in some cases by partial strikes.
"Workers and union representatives have been given complete freedom to choose the measure they deem appropriate," says the island secretary of CCOO, Vanesa Frahija. Thus, she points out that some will hold partial stoppages, others total stoppages, and others will opt for demonstrations, informative pickets and car caravans, depending on what was voted in the different assemblies and meetings.
For now, several demonstrations and gatherings have been called, both in hotels and apartment complexes and in food establishments, and a general assembly is also planned in the Ramírez Cerdá park on April 29 at 9:30 in the morning.
The main demand of commerce and hotel workers is an update of their salaries, which have not been revised for years, since the last agreements were approved. In the case of commerce, they denounce that this salary is already below the interprofessional minimum, and that the increase offered by the employers would still be below that figure. Regarding the hotel industry, CCOO questions that the employers do not even offer an increase.
In addition, they also demand the improvement of other aspects of the agreement, such as the recovery of time to eat during the working day. CCOO also concentrated a few days ago in front of the Asolan headquarters, denouncing that they are increasing their profits "at the cost of an expired collective agreement and frozen salaries since 2019, which translates into the loss of purchasing power for workers."