The second day of the strike in the Tourist Centers has also forced the closure of Jameos del Agua this Wednesday, while in Montañas de Fuego and the Cueva de Los Verdes, only access to tour operator buses and tourists with excursions contracted by agencies, who have their own guide, is still allowed.
According to the Minister of Tourism, Echedey Eugenio, in the case of Jameos they have decided to keep it closed on this day due to a "matter of cleanliness in the bathrooms." And for the moment, he has not been able to confirm whether it will remain closed for the duration of the indefinite strike or whether it will be able to reopen to the public.
"We are consulting with the Labor Inspectorate about the possibility of people working in maintenance and managers cleaning the center. If we could have the center clean, we would probably choose to open tomorrow," he said. "But we don't want to take wrong steps. If it is possible, we will open and if it is not possible, we will not," he added.
In addition, he has denied that this decision is related to the criticism received for opening this and other centers "unattended" during the first day of the strike, allowing free access to tourists. "It is not true that there was no surveillance. By legal obligation, the surveillance of public spaces must be provided by specialized companies. And yesterday the security companies were in all the centers with the normal personnel. In Jameos in particular I think there were three security guards," said the councilor.
"I notice a lot of confusion in the workers"
Regarding the monitoring of the strike, he acknowledged that it is being "very high", although he says he has "noticed" that workers have "a lot of confusion regarding the reasons" for this labor dispute. According to Eugenio, on Tuesday 33 workers from the Centers went to their posts, while more than 260 did not show up because they were "on strike or on a day off". As for this Tuesday, he assures that 72 employees have gone to work.
In his first appearance at a press conference to talk about this strike, Eugenio did not know how to quantify the economic damage that each day of stoppage represents for the Centers. "It is a calculation that will have to be made," he said, noting that it depends "on the services that are provided or not."
What he did point out is that money is having to be returned to tourists who had purchased vouchers to visit the Centers, since the three main ones are closed or have limited visits only to people with excursions contracted by an agency. As for those that remain open, free access is being allowed, since there are no ticket collectors to collect the entrance fee.