Union leaders have confirmed a series of walkouts this summer, expected to affect not only hotels but also restaurants, bars, and nightlife venues across Majorca, Ibiza, and Formentera
British holidaymakers heading to the Balearics this summer could find themselves caught in a storm of strikes and disruption after last-ditch talks between unions and hotel bosses collapsed on Thursday evening.
Union leaders have now confirmed a series of walkouts, with the first five-day strike set to begin on July 10. More disruption is planned throughout the month, with additional strikes scheduled for July 18 and 19, July 25, and July 31. The industrial action is expected to affect not only hotels but also restaurants, bars, and nightlife venues across Majorca, Ibiza, and Formentera, throwing summer plans into turmoil for thousands of tourists.
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More than 180,000 hospitality workers are expected to take part in the action – a mass mobilisation that could cripple the islands’ peak holiday season. Confirmation that talks had failed came late last night, after a tense day of negotiations that had initially broken off for a midday lunch break. Hopes of a breakthrough were dashed when union bosses walked out around 6.30pm and immediately announced the strike plan.
At the heart of the dispute is a bitter standoff over wages. Workers’ representatives had lowered their pay demands to a 16% increase over three years – but employers refused to budge beyond an 11% offer. Hotel bosses had already upped a previous offer to 9.5% earlier this month, but that too was dismissed in talks on June 11, with unions warning then that industrial action was imminent.
UGT union spokesman Jose Garcia described the offer as “more crumbs” and accused hotel owners of expecting workers to survive on tips. After yesterday’s failed meeting, he said: “We’d come here to negotiate to improve the conditions of service industry workers, not to worsen them.”
Javier Fich, president of the Majorca Hotel Business Federation, admitted the talks had failed and placed blame squarely on the union side, saying negotiators had been “too focused” on wages. The federation vice-president Maria Jose Agilo added: “We regret and condemn the behaviour of the UGT union, which from the start has put on the table a strike threat which doesn’t favour a good negotiating climate.”
The bad news from the Balearic Islands followed close on the heels of a last-minute deal to avert the threat of hotel strike action in Tenerife and three of the other Canary Islands in the Atlantic archipelago. Union representatives and employers sealed the deal after reaching a wage rise increase agreement.