Union representatives for the Algarve’s hotel workers have delivered a petition for wage increases that do not involve withdrawing workers’ rights at the same time.
Bosses represented by the Association of Hoteliers in the Algarve (AIHSA) are adept at negotiating wage rises that include a ‘flexibility’ that in the past has resulted in workers toiling for an increased number of hours and being no better off.
The union is wise to this ruse and, now that the Algarve is experiencing a record year for tourism income, it wants some real wage increases, not fiddled ones.
Over in the Vila Real de Santo António council area, hotel workers that now have to pay for car parking, this weekend will be joining the local Communist Party members at a protest action against the whole issue of paid parking in Monte Gordo.
"The parking levy now payable in Monte Gordo shows a contemptuous attitude towards people's complaints and we have hundreds of signatures, from dozens of traders who rightly protest against this," read the Communists’ statement which argues the collection of car-parking fees "does not serve visitors, nor tourists, it does not serve the hotels nor the population and it is just more expense for those working here who need to park."
In faro, the regional directorate of the Portuguese Nurses' Union said it fails to understand how the Government has arranged for more doctors for the Algarve this summer, but has not taken into account the acute shortage of nurses in the region.
There will be a strike on the 28th and 29th of July over staffing levels in the health sector despite the new Health Minister’s assurances in May that all would be well in time for the summer rush - it isn't.
The Deputy Secretary of State for Health, Fernando Araújo, has agreed that the Algarve should have 50 additional doctors but opened the recruitment process only in June this year, leaving hospitals and health centres with a degree of trepidation as to how they will cope.
