Almost two months ago, we had an extraordinary plenary session in the Parliament of the Canary Islands to address the serious problem that plagues our land and that became evident again after the Arope Report, which revealed a terrifying fact: 44.6% of our population is at risk of poverty and social exclusion. And it's rising!!
Almost two months after that extraordinary session, we have not seen any solutions or alternatives from the Government of the Canary Islands.
At the same time that poverty and inequality data increase, we see how tourism grows, both in the number of tourists and in the expenses they make.
We live in that paradox: poverty grows in the Canary Islands while we receive more tourists than ever, who also spend more and more money. The data is clear: in 2016 we received almost 13% more tourists than the previous year. Tourists who, in the first months of 2017, have spent 12.6% more than in 2016. Where is that 13% more profit? Certainly not in our workers.
The Canary Islands is the sixth region in Europe with the most population at risk of poverty and social exclusion. We are only surpassed by two Bulgarian and three Romanian regions. I suppose that if the president is bothered by us comparing ourselves with the Balearic Islands, he should be more bothered by us comparing ourselves with Bulgaria and Romania. It is evident that there is something in this equation that does not fit.
When we ask Fernando Clavijo about the low wages, the excuse he has been giving us throughout the legislature is the same: the problem is the productive model. The service sector bears most of the weight of the Canarian economy, and in that sector, wages are low. That's how it is, and there is no short-term solution.
From the weariness of hearing this excuse, we have found a perfect example to dismantle it: it turns out that there is an Autonomous Community that is even more dedicated to tourism than the Canary Islands, almost 10 points more of its GDP depend on tourism, which also has the problem of insularity, which grows more or less at the same rate as the Canary Islands, and it turns out that we see that wages are, approximately, 20% higher than in the Canary Islands, and that they reach a historic agreement to renegotiate the collective agreements of Tourism and that wages increase by 17% in the next 4 years: it is the Balearic Islands.
Not only do they already earn considerably more than the Canarian people, but the gap will widen in the coming years.
The president says that it is because, of course, fewer people live in the Balearic Islands than in the Canary Islands. Of course! And even so, accepting his excuse: Does this justify such a difference in wages between two territories of the same country that do the same thing?
He forgets to mention that they have competition from other territories in the Mediterranean that we do not have, or that they receive many more seasonal workers from the Peninsula than here, or that we have a million more visitors a year.
We only find one very clear difference with respect to the Balearic Islands: there has been a Government there that has wanted to help its workers, and here we have one whose actions demonstrate, or rather, the absence of them, that its priority is for employers to earn more.
A responsible Government would understand that an increase in wages would also have an impact on an improvement in the entire economy of the Canary Islands.
The fact that this entire volume of salaried workers, of workers in the service sector, sees their remuneration increased would mean an enormous growth in internal consumption, with the corresponding benefit for the entire Canarian economy. Through this path, we could create even more jobs, more than necessary in our land.
Possibilities exist, and solutions exist, but for that, there must be a political will to propose them. The time has come to transfer the growth of GDP to the wage bill, as something basic to be able to talk about real and redistributive growth.
It is possible. It is already being done in some hotels in Gran Canaria, where the economy of the common good is applied, workers are well paid, and with decent conditions, and also employers have profits.
That is why this week we presented in Parliament a Non-Law Proposal for the president of the Canary Islands to carry out an active mediation to renegotiate the collective agreements of the tourism sector in order to raise wages.
Yes, exactly as it has been done in the Balearic Islands.
The proposal was approved unanimously, including the Canarian Coalition.
We will be vigilant to ensure that the mandate of the chamber that represents the people of the Canary Islands is fulfilled.
Of course, the terrible situation that the Canary Islands is going through is not going to be fixed by continuing to do nothing because, remembering what an old Chinese proverb says: "He who wants to do something finds a way, he who does not want to do anything finds an excuse".
Noemí Santana Perera, General Secretary and parliamentary spokesperson for Podemos Canarias
