Laundry workers in the Balearics will go on strike indefinitely from August 1.
The UGT and CCOO unions have decided on industrial action after negotiations for wage improvements have run aground.
The proposed wage increase made by the employers, of 20 euros more to reach 1,100 euros per month, has not satisfied the workers, the unions explain.
“It is not an offer that matches the precariousness with which all these people are working”, says the secretary general of CCOO, José Luis García, adding that “the employers have to understand that the workers in this sector have been in this precarious situation for a long time, both in terms of working conditions and wages”.
Garcia also stresses that the last wage increase, to 1,080 euros, “was thanks to the increase in the Minimum Interprofessional Wage (SMI) by the government”.
The unions’ demand is for a rise of up to 1,300 euros plus bonuses and two days off a week, a point, the latter, which is described as a “red line” for the negotiations.
The decision to go on strike could have serious effects on the hotel sector on the islands, as the vast majority of establishments in Mallorca and Menorca have this service outsourced.
The situation in Ibiza is different, with the majority of hotels having the service outsourced, so the impact would be less.
The unions point out that, in any case, the minimum services defined by the public administration would be focused on essential public services such as health services, so that hospitals would not be undersupplied.
Miguel Pardo, secretary general of CCOO, warns that hotels would be the first to suffer from the strike.
“There will be no clothes, no sheets, no towels. It could be disastrous for tourism”.
The laundry sector employs around 1,500 workers throughout the islands. Many of these employees “are exploited”, according to Pardo, “working piece-rate for the minimum wage and with only a day or a day and a half off a week”.
The companies themselves, he points out, are having serious problems filling their workforces: “With these conditions, people are leaving”.
For the time being, there is still room for negotiation: next Wednesday, the strike committee and the laundry employers’ association have been summoned to the arbitrary tribunal.