The TIB workers will carry out their second day of strike on Monday as part of the cycle of mobilizations that began last Friday, demanding that their demands be accepted in the renewal of the new collective agreement and in the mediation process initiated by the Government.
The SATI union, the majority in the sector, reported a 100% follow-up on the first day of the strike among TIB drivers in Mallorca, Menorca, and Ibiza, although it should be noted that the Government has set minimum services at 60%.
On that day, the workers held a concentration at the Intermodal station in Palma to express their dissatisfaction with the inability to reach an agreement with the concessionaire companies to improve their working conditions.
Among their demands is an 8.5% salary increase to recover the purchasing power lost in recent years due to inflation and to regulate their working hours to ensure the drivers’ rest periods.
Regarding rest periods, SATI’s representative, Jesús Rodríguez, pointed out that despite being entitled to a 30-minute break, the working hours of the drivers can be irregular, sometimes spending seven or eight hours «without getting up from their seats,» as there are days when they may work an hour more or less until the 40-hour weekly limit is reached.
He emphasized that one of the requests is that they should not work more than eight and a half hours in a day, but stressed that it must be specified that rest periods should be a minimum of 15 minutes because currently those 30 minutes can be divided in any way, and he argued that when they have 5-minute breaks, they spend them «charging passengers at the terminals.»
On the other hand, the manager of the Balearic Federation of Transport (FEBT), Petra Mut, lamented the impossibility of reaching an agreement as the positions between both parties, despite nearly eight months of negotiation, remain far apart.
Mut denied that the dozen concessionaire companies do not want to «dignify the profession» and argued that, as the conditions are subject to public tenders that will end in 2030, the room for maneuver is relatively limited.
Rodríguez highlighted that the new Ministry of Labor, Public Function, and Social Dialogue has initiated mediation with each of the conflicting parties but stressed that the employers’ position «has hardly moved.»
However, it should be noted that on Friday, the Government’s spokesperson, Antoni Costa, ruled out intervening in the negotiations between the union and the TIB concessionaire companies, ensuring that he will act as a «facilitator» and calling for «responsibility» from all parties.
If an agreement is not reached between the parties, the strike will continue with another 24-hour day on Wednesday and will become an indefinite strike from next Friday.
During Friday’s events, there were also a series of incidents, such as the damage suffered by seven buses from one of the TIB concessionaire companies, with broken windows due to stone throwings.
FUENTE