The trade unions UGT, CCOO and STEI today called on the general public in the Balearics to join the protest on Sunday and demonstrate against tourist overcrowding and have called for a tourism model that does not create “precariousness”. This is what the secretary general of CCOO, José García, the spokesperson of UGT Baleares, Xisca Garí, and the secretary general of STEI, Miquel Gelabert, said at a joint press conference in which they encouraged people to take part in the demonstration ‘Canviem el rumb, posen límits al turisme’ (change course and limit tourism).
They called for an economic model in the that “does not generate job insecurity” and claimed that the tourist overcrowding impoverishes citizens, increases the workload and does not improve the quality of life. The spokeswoman for UGT Baleares considered that overcrowded tourism is “unsustainable” from a social, economic and environmental point of view. According to Garí, it causes work overloads, prevents access to housing and does not generate social welfare.
“In the Balearics everything is growing except the quality of life,” she said, criticising the increase in tourists, flights, economic indicators, profits and employment - “is not improving people’s lives”.
The secretary general of the CCOO also referred to this issue, criticising that the model “promotes labour exploitation” and “only enriches certain businessmen”. Furthermore, he continued, it has repercussions in terms of “job insecurity”, which is demonstrated by the “low wages”, which do not make it possible to meet the costs of living or to have access to housing.
Likewise, the UGT spokesperson criticised the fact that “all” the rental offer “is aimed at visitors”, while residents “cannot find flats to live in” due to the high prices caused by “touristification”. According to her, the business profits resulting from tourism “do not have an impact” on improving family and social welfare on the islands, and overcrowding “condemns” working people to poverty and “makes their jobs and their lives more precarious with exhausting working hours”.
She called on the government to “take advantage” of the resignation of the councillor for Housing, Territory and Mobility, Marta Vidal, and to consider “a courageous change” in housing policy in order to draw up a shock plan with short-term measures and a strategy for the future. “We have precariousness in the workplaces, with a model that increases workloads as a result of overcrowding,” said the secretary general of the CCOO, pointing out that this impoverishes the working class more and more.
For his part, the secretary general of STEI also insisted that the population of the Balearics is “impoverished”, a situation that “must be reversed. We are not saying no to tourism, we are saying no to overcrowding,” he said. He also pointed out that wealth in the islands is “badly distributed” and that the average Balearic income is below the national average. However, he called for a “change of course” towards better social and economic justice.
All in all, the three unions have called on the workers of the islands, as well as the citizens as a whole, to attend Sunday’s demonstration. “We don’t want more inequality in our autonomous community,” García concluded.