Bus drivers in Mallorca as well as in Menorca and Ibiza are standing firm in their call for a strike in the face of the stalemate in negotiations with employers over pay and working conditions. Talks have been ongoing for six months without progress.
Juan Rodríguez, president of the works council and a bus driver for 20 years, insists that the strike will go ahead "100%". "The employers are not budging. Our patience is running out." He adds that there has been no contact with the Balearic Transport Federation for almost a month. There is hope that mediation by the TAMIB arbitration tribunal, due to begin on Tuesday, will bring some change, but "management will have to change a lot for there to be progress".
The differences on pay are great. The SATI, the union involved in the negotiations, is seeking a 9.6% increase for this year plus increases of half a percentage point above inflation for 2026 and 2027. The employers have tabled 8.9% over four years.
In addition, the workers want an unfreezing of a seniority supplement (in respect of years worked) that hasn't been updated for 17 years. On working conditions, they are demanding a reduction in the maximum working day, regulation of breaks during the workday, improved weekly rest, and facilities for early partial retirement.
Rodríguez also emphasises the urgent need to modernise the collective bargaining agreement, which has remained practically the same for 40 years and contains ambiguous clauses that lead to differences of interpretation by the concessionaire operators.
The employers' pay offer doesn't include a seniority element and nor does it affect other aspects of the agreement. The union says this is totally "insufficient".
24-hour stoppages are scheduled for July 18, 21, and 23. If there is no agreement, the strike will be indefinite from the 25th.
The TIB transport brand includes the trains and the metro, but the planned action only affects the bus operators, of which there are three in Mallorca, two in Menorca and two also in Ibiza. The EMT buses in Palma are separate.
Workers' assemblies have already given support, in principle, for strike action. If this goes ahead, it will be subject to minimum service levels, but the potential impact in the height of the tourism season will be greater than that of the proposed hospitality industry strike (now called off). There were serious doubts as to whether hospitality workers would have supported strike action. With the bus drivers there aren't the same doubts.