The Company Committee of the municipal buses of Arrecife has proposed a strike notice for September 27 to demand that the City Council pay overtime to the drivers. The president of this Committee, José Cabrera, indicated this Thursday on Radio Lanzarote that, in addition to this reason, they also demand all the documentation and invoicing of the bus service. And, according to Cabrera, there is suspicion that the City Council may have incurred in "an alleged crime of embezzlement of public funds", since "they have charged invoices to the buses that have nothing to do with this service".
This same Thursday, leaflets have already begun to be distributed to citizens, communicating this strike notice. Furthermore, according to Cabrera, the Local Police of Arrecife, "commanded by Cándido Reguera," has identified two young people who were leaving these leaflets on the windshields of vehicles in the vicinity of the Arrecife City Council. "They have removed one of the leaflets and allowed them to continue with the rest, because they were not committing any crime," Cabrera indicated.
Regarding the notice of indefinite strike, José Cabrera has assured that this is "a very long struggle, which has lasted for more than two years" and involves several local corporations. "We have been asking for bus documentation for two years, and this transparent mayor does not give it to us," Cabrera indicated, while announcing that this Friday the workers have a trial with the City Council because it "refuses" to provide them with this documentation.
"They must have something to hide when they continue to refuse to show the documentation. This way, we could study it because it smells bad, rotten. There is invoicing that is put there that does not correspond to urban buses. I have already seen some with these little eyes, but I need the physical document because I want to put it in the hands of the judicial authority, because it may incur in an alleged crime of embezzlement of public funds," José Cabrera insisted.
Overtime
According to the president of the Company Committee, the Arrecife City Council "owes a lot of overtime" to the bus workers. "We have sent a letter to the mayor telling him that we don't care if he pays us overtime in money or gives us days for our enjoyment. He has told us that he cannot pay in money, because there is none, but we cannot take days off either, because there are not enough workers. In other words, we also have to continue doing overtime," he denounced.
José Cabrera maintains that before privatizing the company, the workers should know the invoicing of the service to know how many losses there are. "Every time the mayor or Lorenzo Lemaur comes out, they add 100,000 euros to the debt, and we no longer know how much it is. We have documentation that proves that the accounts have been inflated," he stressed.
"Inflated" invoices
Cabrera pointed out that this problem "has been going on for a long time". "All the corporations have hidden the documentation, but if Cándido is so transparent and has nothing to hide, let him show the papers. There are invoices with names and surnames, gentlemen who are signing as technicians when they are not, things that are being charged to buses and are not from this service. Let each one bear the consequences, because what cannot be is that we are all our lives at the disposal of the politician on duty who does and undoes what he wants," Cabrera lamented.
In this sense, he indicated that then "it is not worth" that the mayor Cándido Reguera or the councilor Lorenzo Lemaur come out "on the radio justifying themselves" when there are already "eleven families on the street".
Lemaur, surprised by the strike
For his part, the Councilor for Transport of the Arrecife City Council, Lorenzo Lemaur, has assured that this strike notice "has surprised him" and has indicated that the workers allege "excess of overtime and non-compliance with the Law on Occupational Risks". "The right to strike is constitutional, but we do not understand the reasons for declaring an indefinite strike," he indicated.
Lemaur is trying to get in touch with the general secretary of CCOO in Lanzarote, Victoria Sande, whom the bus employees have chosen as an interlocutor to know the details of the strike. In this sense, Lemaur has indicated that he does not understand "why it is said that the Law on Occupational Risks is not being complied with" and regarding overtime, he has assured that he commissioned a report on the matter to "proceed with the hiring of special personnel to cover overtime".
Regarding the invoicing, Lemaur has assured that both he and the mayor told the auditor to provide the Company Committee with the documentation they required and it was he "who decided which documents to give". In addition, the councilor has tried to defend the current government group and has insisted that the problem of the buses "is inherited".
"The interest of the City Council is that the buses function as well as possible. Our will is to solve the problems they raise, and if not, we will establish minimum services during the strike," Lemaur indicated.
