The two main unions in the Balearics - the CCOO and the UGT - have been saying for some time that the traditional May Day rally will have an added edge if there is no sign of a satisfactory new collective bargaining agreement for the islands' hospitality industry.
The first of May has been earmarked as the start of protest action that could have ramifications for the tourism season. The schedule for the negotiations is due to end in a little over three weeks' time, and after Wednesday's meeting, the general secretary of the UGT's services division, José García Relucio, said: "It's not that we are far away, we are very far away."
This was the fifth meeting and the first one at which the employers, led by the Mallorca Hoteliers Federation, had tabled a pay offer.
"Derisory," was García's response to an 8.5% rise over three years. The unions are demanding 19% as a minimum. "If the main economic activity in the Balearics offers a salary that would allow you to barely survive for six or seven months, that speaks volumes about the attitudes of the various people who represent the employers' associations."
The two sides have agreed to set up a subcommittee to try and expedite the process, but it is going to require a great deal of will to achieve a breakthrough in talks that are stuck where they have been from the outset. As well as the gap on pay, other differences include measures to tackle absenteeism and the length of the working week.
Francesc Triay of the Menorca Hoteliers Association expressed his concern about conflict that could lead to strikes. He added: "The biggest loser if an agreement is not reached now will be the tourism sector, not the workers, because sooner or later the agreement will be finalised."
María José Aguiló for the Mallorca hoteliers argued that the employers' pay offer was based on "rigorous analysis", a law firm having studied workers' purchasing power over the past ten years. This, she said, reveals a positive balance of 8.3% in salary increases over the rise in the Consumer Price Index. The latest pay proposal therefore "guarantees and protects workers' purchasing power". The unions' figure, by contrast, had been "plucked out of Aladdin's lamp".
Hector Gómez, president of CCOO-Services, accused the employers of "constant lack of movement". The proposal was "totally insufficient, unrealistic and illogical, especially when we are experiencing record figures for profits, spending and visitors as well as exorbitant prices".
* The agreement covers restaurants and nightlife as well as hotels and applies to some 180,000 workers in the Balearics.
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