The strike in the ambulance sector continues in the Canary Islands and continues to divide the unions, as UGT has asked CCOO and USO this Wednesday to call it off. "What they are doing is selling smoke," responded the strike delegate in Lanzarote and member of Comisiones Obreras, Jorge Montoya, who denies that UGT has achieved the improvements it claims in its negotiation with the Canarian Health Service. "They are poisoning our colleagues," Montoya said.
Specifically, UGT stated in a statement that it secured "the public commitment from the General Directorate of the Canarian Health Service to increase the amount of the public tender for the Sanitary Transport Service," as well as that "the specifications will establish that a portion of said budget must address the salary increase of all workers." Therefore, it asked CCOO and UGT not to insist "on leading the workers in the ambulance sector into a dead end" in a strike that "asks for a miserable salary increase."
"USO and CCOO are asking for a freeze on salaries in 2017 and an increase of 1.5% for 2018. UGT is asking for a 5.5% increase, and the Ministry of Health has already committed to updating the salaries for 2017 and 2018, which would leave the salaries in accordance with the salary tables contained in the Sectoral Collective Agreement. The claims of the other unions, therefore, would be to leave these salaries below this regulatory text, points out UGT, thus understanding that "it makes no sense to continue leading the staff into a conflict that only aims to wear down the strength of the workers, asking for less than what the administration offers."
"If you read that statement, you will see that it says what they are asking for, but not what the improvement is," points out Jorge Montoya, the delegate of the ambulance sector of CCOO in Lanzarote, who states that it is not known what the amount of the public tender is. In fact, he points out that CCOO and USO have asked "the administration to say what money is being talked about in order to negotiate" and not do as "UGT does, which does not know what is being offered, but is negotiating above." "We understand that in order to negotiate there has to be a middle ground, because if the companies don't earn, it is going to harm us, because they are going to go bankrupt," he added.
They denounce that this Wednesday minimum services "of 100%" were put in place
In any case, the strike delegate in Lanzarote has stated that, until now, "there has been no willingness on the part of the employers or the administration to reach an agreement" and that therefore CCOO and USO will maintain the stoppages during the remainder of this month and throughout the month of April. Specifically, stoppages are being carried out every Wednesday, from 12 to 3 p.m., although Jorge Montoya states that the administration put minimum services for this Wednesday "of 100%."
"Colleagues who may have a transfer for rehabilitation or for something that does not endanger the patient's life, are being forced to do them so that they cannot attend the strike. We understand that as minimum services are the patients who go to dialysis, radiotherapy, chemotherapy and emergencies," said the strike delegate in Lanzarote.
"Coercion" and schedules of 240 hours per month in Lanzarote
In the case of Lanzarote, where the company Tasisa is in charge of the ambulance service, the CCOO delegate of the ambulance sector also points out that the claim goes further. And according to Jorge Montoya, while "in Tenerife and Las Palmas they are complying with the agreement that was signed more than eight years ago and have guarantees and schedules more in line with reality," in Lanzarote "they don't."
In this sense, he points out that the collective agreement in the Canary Islands dictates that ambulance workers work a schedule of 170 hours per month. "But here we are working a schedule of 240 hours and we are being paid below the collective agreement," says Montoya, who also denounces that workers are suffering "coercion" from "the bosses for three years" to "sign as if they agree to have 7% of their payrolls taken away."
