The prospect of a damaging summer strike by hotel staff in Tenerife and three other Canary Islands looks to have been averted with just days to go before the walkouts.
Workers in hotels, apartments and the hospitality sector in general had warned that they would strike once per week in July and August in a bitter dispute over pay and working conditions.
Earlier this month, the Sindicalistas de Base and UGT unions, who represent the bulk of the 76,000 employees, rejected a pay offer by employers’ associations Ashotel and Aero, saying it did not constitute sufficient progress.
In addition to an above-inflation pay rise for the coming years, workers have been pressing for a backdated 6.5% rise this year to offset the increased cost of living since 2021.
With the start of the summer holidays around the corner, the unions were adamant that they would not hesitate to repeat their industrial action of last Easter and stage strikes every Friday in all hotels in Tenerife, La Gomera, La Palma and El Hierro.
However, a last-ditch meeting brokered by Canarian president Fernando Clavijo and the region’s tourism minister Jéssica de León has led to a change of heart by the one of the two unions, which agreed to put the employers’ latest offer to its members.
The preliminary agreement, which contemplates a 13.5% pay increase over the next three years, received unanimous backing from 300 union delegates at a hastily convened meeting yesterday. The solution to the main grievance means that other aspects can be finalised before the definitive deal is completed on Friday.
The breakthrough comes as a massive relief to the Canarian government and to Tenerife, which faced the prospect of a crippling strike involving noisy protests outside hotels in resorts. News of the planned action had already reached the media in the main countries of origin of the island’s tourists, with some UK newspapers warning of «summer chaos» in store for British holidaymakers.
