Comisiones Obreras of the Canary Islands has accused the Riu hotel chain this Tuesday of showing "total contempt for the rights and dignity of workers" in the hotel sector. The union has called for mobilizations in the hotels Riu Paraíso Lanzarote, in Puerto del Carmen, in the Hotel Riu Gran Canaria, in Meloneras, and in the Hotel Riu Calypso in Morro Jable to demand "decent conditions".
"CCOO is not going to stand idly by while companies continue filling their coffers at the expense of plunging thousands of Canarian families into poverty," it said in a press release. Thus, it has called a concentration this Thursday, December 5, at the doors of the three hotels, "against endless working days, starvation wages, the lack of work-life balance and the excessive burdens to which workers are subjected."
The union has stressed that they want to demand "decent conditions" in the sector and has recalled that the tourism sector provides 35% of the direct Gross Domestic Product, "after closing 2023 with a new record of tourists, exceeding 16 million." CCOO has stressed that "this hotel chain does not move an inch to improve working conditions and even less a fair distribution of those benefits that have been generated by the workers."
The union has accused the hotel employers of not investing in training, while "they cry that there are no professionals." In addition, it has indicated that "they see occupational health as an expense and then insult society by insinuating that workers take sick leave without justification."
Comisiones Obreras has stressed that this chain "demands working days that make work-life balance impossible, countless unpaid overtime hours", "precarious working conditions and salaries that they refuse to revalue at the same rate as the cost of living."
In this sense, it has indicated that RIU "ignores" Comisiones Obreras in favor of "its vertical union, agreeing agreements without the representation of the workers and signing agreements below what is determined by the judicial sentences."
Thus, it has added that the hotel chain "uses the working class as a weapon" and gives as an example the case of the Riu Oliva Beach hotel in Fuerteventura.
