The president of the Island Association of Hotel and Apartment Businessmen of Lanzarote (ASOLAN) was accompanied at the press conference by other members of the board of directors. The tourism association wanted to analyze and assess the tourist situation on the Island, as well as express its opinion about certain conflictive situations that are occurring in Lanzarote.
Need for arbitration
Such is the case of the strike that Iberia workers have been holding since June 26 at the Lanzarote airport. Francisco Armas was very harsh and forceful when assessing the conflict and expressly asked the parties involved in the conflict to voluntarily submit to arbitration with the intervention of the General Directorate of Labor of the Government of the Canary Islands, so that it issues a mandatory award with the utmost urgency.
Painful image of the island
The president of the tourism association stated that "the Lanzarote airport is the main entrance for our visitors and it is painful to be news for the problems generated by the airport's handling issue."
He assured that, from his particular point of view, "without entering into the legitimacy of defending the interests of a group of workers, we understand that there is something above all that, which is the collective interest and the image of the Island."
He also referred to the impact that the conflict has had in different national media: "we must take into account that those minutes that national televisions and other media have dedicated to us, destroy work that has been done for a long time, precisely to place Lanzarote as a preferred destination."
According to Armas, the efforts made by administrations, businessmen and other groups are very important, because everyone in Lanzarote is aware that the Island lives from tourism and that it must be taken care of. "It is painful to see that all that work is going down the drain and, specifically, the situation experienced last Sunday is paradigmatic of this," he concluded, referring to the almost 7,000 suitcases that were left on the ground last weekend.
"We have to be aware that we live from tourism and without entering into the legitimacy of the interests of the workers, the collective interest and the image of the island must be above all else," Armas stated.
In this sense, he recalled that for "any conflict that arises, especially in such sensitive areas as the airport, in a State of Law there are established channels to resolve the differences between employers and workers, and it seems excessive to us that the airport, visitors and residents are subjected" to a strike of these characteristics. In his opinion, "to defend the interests of the workers, which may be legitimate, the entrance and exit door of Lanzarote is being used as a hostage and the traveler is being subjected to tortures that are completely detrimental to the image of the Island."
He stated that this conflict has surprising characteristics because Guacimeta "is the only airport in Spain that has a conflict, when there are collective agreements at the national level, and it seems out of place that these measures of pressure are exercised so traumatic for the tourist image of the Island to defend the interests, even if they are legitimate, of a small group of people."
Bus conflict
The president of ASOLAN also wanted to assess the call for a strike in the discretionary passenger transport sector and congratulated the workers and companies for the start of the round of negotiations to achieve a new agreement and the definitive suspension of the scheduled stoppages. At the moment, the strike is postponed pending reaching a final agreement.
Armas recalled that "ASOLAN has already requested and appealed to the rationality of the groups of workers involved in this conflict, so that they would leave aside this type of demands during this month of August, which is when we receive the most visitors." He said that this possible strike would turn the Island "upside down", and would make the Island news again "in national and even international media." He wanted to say publicly that "we continue to appeal to everyone to be consistent, because everyone, more or less, lives from tourism."
Postponed stoppages
In principle, there will be no need to regret these consequences because the stoppages called and planned for today and next Sunday have been postponed by the representatives of the Trade Union Organization (USO) and CCOO.
For the moment, a meeting has been called for tomorrow, Friday, in which the unions and the employers in the sector will presumably begin to negotiate on specific aspects. This is a meeting that is part of the calendar of actions that both parties have committed to comply with to avoid a major conflict, always with the mediation of the Labor Court of the Canary Islands.
The meeting will take place at 4:00 p.m. at the headquarters of the Mediation, Arbitration and Conciliation Service (SEMAC).
The unions had said that they would postpone the strike when the General Directorate of Labor intervened, and that is what happened last Tuesday at the meeting that employers and workers held in the presence of a representative of the Labor Court.
Until now, the Tourism Board has collected in an official document the demands of the union that have been transferred to the General Directorate of Labor, such as compliance with free days and rest hours, solving delays in the payment of salaries, the equalization of salary increases to the Consumer Price Index (CPI) and the modification of the working day.
More than 90% hotel occupancy
The president of the tourism association also referred to the new hotel occupancy data, which, for the moment, are very positive. The occupancy data for the month of July have already been published, which exceed those of last year on those same dates by more than one point. With respect to the month of August, it is still too early to make a firm assessment, because the statistics are usually made once the month is closed. However, Armas said that, according to the data available to the association and what the businessmen confirmed to him, it can be ventured that August will close with some point above last year, exceeding 90% hotel occupancy. Beyond August, the data is partial and it is too early to make forecasts for the month of September.
This increase, in Armas' opinion, has to do with the massive presence of peninsular tourism, which has compensated for the slight decrease in visitors from Great Britain and Germany. In addition, he recalled, this is the third year that agreements have been signed with certain airlines, so that direct links to Lanzarote with Spanish cities have been consolidated and expanded. Indeed, the Lanzarote airport has achieved a new record during this summer period with direct connections with other airports in the Spanish territory. Between the months of July and September, five airlines have programmed direct air links between Guacimeta and 17 Spanish airports, 12 of them in the peninsular territory.
AENA confirmed a week ago that between the months of July and September Lanzarote will be directly linked with the airports of Alicante, Asturias, Barcelona, Bilbao, Granada, Madrid, Málaga, Santiago de Compostela, Seville, Valencia, Valladolid and Vitoria, in addition to the Canary aerodromes of La Palma, Tenerife North and South, Fuerteventura and Gran Canaria. During this year 2005, in addition to the airlines Iberia, Spanair and Air Europa, the companies Air Nostrum, Iberworld and Binter have programmed connections with these airports.
