“If the employers do not listen to us at the negotiating table, they will listen to us at the doors of their companies”. This is how Comisiones Obreras has announced the rallies, demonstrations and informative pickets that it will carry out on the island, to denounce the “blockage of salary increases” and the “intentional slowdown of the different collective agreements, especially in the hotel and commerce sectors”.
In addition, it even threatens to call a strike during Easter Week, and hopes that employers "are aware of the damage that this blockage in negotiations can cause to the image of the tourism sector abroad, at the moment we are in”.
The protests already began last Friday, with informative pickets in different companies in Costa Teguise, and have continued this Tuesday, with a rally at the Be Live Experience hotel and another at the Barceló Teguise Beach hotel.
In addition, next Thursday they will take the protest to all “the main hotels on the island”, and in the following days they will do the same in shopping centers and supermarkets. They also have planned a demonstration through the workplaces of Playa Blanca on February 18.
“If the representatives of the employers do not have the capacity to negotiate, we will take the conflict to the door of their companies and not only will they have to listen to us, but also their clients”, insists Comisiones Obreras, which explains that this mobilization of the hotel and commerce sectors is carried out jointly throughout the province of Las Palmas.
Regarding the commerce sector, to which some 60,000 people in the province of Las Palmas are dedicated, it denounces that it is “in dire conditions”. “In the 21st century, the staff does not have the right to eat during their working day, having to recover the 20 minutes of the sandwich, thus lengthening their daily working hours”, he questions.
As for the hotel industry, which brings together more than 50,000 workers in the province, it criticizes that “it continues with the collective agreement expired and with salaries frozen since 2019, despite the decade of business profits”.
“Despite the recovery of tourism, employers continue to refuse to apply the salary increases proposed by the workers, who continue to lose purchasing power brutally due to the increase in prices”, warns the union.
In addition, it emphasizes that there are “some” employers who “are willing to agree on salary increases in their companies, out of commitment to their employees, to maintain social peace and avoid conflict in their workplaces”, but questions that this is not the case of the employers, who “do not represent all employers”.
