The industrial action by street cleaners and rubbish collectors employed by Lumsa, the town hall's contractor, started on Thursday and immediately provoked angry complaints from residents and businesses. There was anger also from the union, which accused the town hall of seeking to impose an "abusive" minimum level of service for the indefinite strike. This was set at 70% of normal service for street cleaning, rising to 100% to cover the fiestas in Porto Cristo. The union considered this to be a "desperate" attempt by the town hall to get round the strike.
It went on to say that Lumsa employees and their legal representatives had rejected these service levels, adding that it was "inconceivable" that a body which is an interested party in the conflict, i.e. the town hall, should be making a decision on these.
The town hall, meanwhile, has contacted the national government's delegation to the Balearics and asked that its general secretary, Evelio Antich, reports the strike to state security forces in order to ensure the delivery of minimum service levels and normal procedures for an industrial protest. The delegation has also been informed that the service levels were arrived at in order to avoid any health problems arising.
Although the strike took effect on Thursday, it had technically begun the night before. National Police were on standby at a meeting between workers' representatives and the company at which the service levels were rejected. Lumsa forced the signing of a document which could entail the dismissal of the whole workforce of 62 employees.
The strike is over pay and working conditions. The latter have been described as "awful", while the CCOO says that there hasn't been a pay increase for ten years. Workers are demanding a 4.5% pay rise.
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Imposing work contracts always fails. Always has, always will.If in doubt, ask any passing Junior Doctor from the UK.