The hotel unions in the Canary Islands warned this Tuesday after a second meeting with the tourism employers of Las Palmas that there will be a strike in the sector this Holy Week if their workers do not recover the purchasing power lost in recent years.
"It is a clear and objective fact, one can be creative in the payment formulas, but we cannot be flexible" in what is owed to workers who are contributing to the millionaire profits recorded by hotel companies in the Canary Islands, the secretary of the CCOO Services Federation, Borja Suárez, and the secretary of Hospitality and Tourism of UGT Canarias, Francisco González, told EFE.
The positions held by the parties on the necessary salary recovery remain "at odds", but are closer in relation to work shifts and the labor improvements that the unions are requesting for the cleaning ladies.
Therefore, they have agreed to meet again, which will take place this Friday at 4:30 p.m. at the headquarters of the Federation of Hospitality and Tourism Businessmen of Las Palmas, where the strike committee will learn the opinion of the employers on the new remuneration proposal that they have put on the table this Tuesday.
González stressed that Tuesday's meeting "ended in a draw" because "the employers are moving, but do not meet the expectations" of the workers' representation, which is immovable with respect to the recovery, this year, of lost purchasing power.
"We are facing an employer who does not realize that their workers are the ones who move a sector" with millionaire results and that "if they could, they would not pay, so today there are more reasons than yesterday to go on strike", said the UGT representative.
For his part, from CCOO, Borja Suárez stressed that the approach made by the FEHT on this salary claim "is insufficient to call off the strike" scheduled for this Holy Thursday and Friday, which the sector's unions already support "without cracks", as González highlighted, after the Trade Union Board of Hospitality joined it this Monday.
The union representatives did not want to reveal figures or percentages to respect the confidentiality of the collective bargaining, although they have assured that, despite the willingness to listen shown by the FEHT, there remains "the big issue" of the recovery of the purchasing power of the workers.