"We have managed to minimize the impact of a strike that is very damaging to the image of the island. But I have the feeling that within the bad, we have done a good job." This is how the Tourism Councilor of the Cabildo, Echedey Eugenio, assessed this Wednesday the first two days of the strike in the Tourist Centers. A strike that this Wednesday has forced the closure of Jameos del Agua and that since Tuesday prevents private visits to the Cueva de Los Verdes and also to Montañas de Fuego, where only buses with excursions contracted through agencies can access.
"We have managed to open the Centers," Eugenio defended, referring to those that have opened their doors practically without staff and without charging tourists for admission, such as the Mirador del Río and the Jardín de Cactus. In addition, he insisted that there have been no scenes of "tension" at the doors of the Centers, "except for some specific issue, the typical radical that is always there."
Regarding the criticism he has received from his own government partner, the PSOE, and from almost all the opposition parties, who blame him for the strike and in some cases have called for his resignation, Eugenio has attributed it to "four political parties and some media outlets that point to the same old target." In addition, he has made it clear that he has no intention of resigning: "I am appointed and dismissed by the president, and he places me as councilor and takes me away from the population."
"Naive of me, I thought the strike was going to be called off"
In the press conference he offered this Wednesday, Echedey Eugenio also denied that the tourism sector was not warned in time, as the PSOE had denounced. According to the councilor, they had created two Whatsapp groups with different business associations and those linked to tourism, and if the start of the strike was not officially communicated until Monday, he says it was because until that moment they did not know it was going to take place.
"Naive of me, I thought the strike was going to be called off," Eugenio declared, who pointed out that "maybe in this someone is right who says that young people in politics do not foresee things." "Until Monday afternoon I was confident that the strike was going to be called off, because we had a proposal accepting five and a half points out of the six raised" by the Works Council, he defended. In any case, he assured that "everything was planned" to face the strike. "If not, we would not have been able to give the service we gave yesterday," he pointed out, referring to the first day of stoppages.
However, he has "recognized" that it was a "mistake" not to convene the Board of Spokespersons of the Cabildo. "It is true that we could have convened it," he said, responding to an intervention by the councilor of Nueva Canarias, Juan Manuel Sosa, who attended the press conference, as did the spokesperson for Somos Lanzarote, Tomás López. "When mistakes are made, you have to recognize them," said Echedey Eugenio, admitting that the information "could" have been transferred to the rest of the parties in the Board.
"Total support" from CC to Eugenio
For his part, the spokesperson for CC in the Cabildo, Luis Arráez, who appeared alongside Eugenio at the press conference, showed on behalf of his group the "total support for the councilor and the management team of the EPEL of the Tourist Centers for how they have worked on this matter." "An agreement has not been reached not because they have not tried, but because the other party has not wanted to," said Arráez, who has recognized that they are "very concerned about this situation, which is logically very unpleasant."
In addition, he has described the strike as a "political conflict" and has assured that there are no "real reasons" for these stoppages. And he has also questioned that they are "taking advantage of a moment of maximum tourist influx" and that "it also has a lot of media impact."
Regarding the possibilities of ending this strike, they have not given deadlines or signs of a solution to the conflict. "We have made a proposal and it has not been answered. I cannot respond to the times of the Works Council," Eugenio responded, who affirms that they made that last proposal last Saturday, before the start of the strike, and that he is still waiting for an answer. "I cannot force anyone to go to a meeting," he pointed out when asked about the possibility of resuming negotiations to end this situation. However, he also stressed that the meetings he has held so far with the Works Council "have all been cordial, within the tension of a negotiation."
"We at the Centers have complied with the ruling"
The Tourism Councilor has also denied that they have not complied with the TSJC ruling that sided with the workers, as the Works Council maintains. "We at the Centers have complied with the ruling," Eugenio assured, who insists that the difference lies in the "interpretation" that one side and the other make about how the ruling should be executed.
According to the councilor, when the new collective agreement was signed in 2014, the right to collect the availability, transport and uniform washing bonuses during the month of vacation was eliminated. However, these payments were included in the tables of the agreement, so the TSJC recognized the right of workers to continue collecting these supplements, and also to receive retroactively those that had stopped receiving since 2014.
In the case of new workers, Eugenio assures that this payment has already been made. But in the case of those who were there before 2014, he assures that they had already been compensated in their day with a "new personal supplement", so they understood that it was not appropriate to pay them this sum now. "Even so, the company proposes to give in on this point and agree on the payment in this concept," the councilor assured, who stated that then "they took another issue out of the hat." According to Eugenio, what they were claiming is "that the salary increase that was practiced in 2014, which was obviously also incorporated into their personal supplement, has to be paid again." And this, the councilor affirms, would mean 1.4 million euros that they are not willing to pay. According to Eugenio, that is the point on which they have not agreed, since the company's management asks that they wait for the pending trials to be resolved, as a result of the lawsuits filed by some workers claiming this payment.
Regarding the rest of the points demanded by the Works Council, Eugenio assures that they have already accepted them. "We have committed to reducing hiring through Temporary Employment Agencies," he said, pointing out that they will also be given participation in the preparation of staff and personnel selection processes, something that he affirms they could already do at present.
