Strikes Threaten Summer Chaos for Spain-bound Britons

Several hundred thousand British tourists face holiday chaos in Spain later this month after trade unions announced that they would call hotel and other workers in the tourism industry out on strike in the Costa del Sol, Majorca and Ibiza in two weeks' time.

Chambermaids, apartment cleaners, waiters and chefs are among up to 100,000 workers who will not turn up at hotels, apartment blocks, camp sites, restaurants and bars used by holidaymakers if the stand-off between unions and employers is not resolved.

The July 25 strike would last four days and be followed by three other stoppages of two or three days each, ending on August 22.

Costa del Sol resorts, such as Fuengirola, Torremolinos and Marbella, will be packed with Britons at the peak period of the holiday season. At least 135 hotels and 10,000 restaurants, bars and other services along this stretch of Spain's southern Mediterranean coast would be affected by strike action.

A similar strike has been called for Majorca, Ibiza and the rest of the Balearic islands starting on July 26 and covering a total of nine days up to August 18.

Package tour operators have warned that the proposed strike could lead to people cancelling holidays. "A strike would be a shame. Many people would change destination," said Juan Carlos Alia of TUI, owner of Thomson Holidays and Lunn Poly.

"Just announcing the strike starts tourists worrying," said Ana Gomez, head of the tourist board on the Costa del Sol.

The strikes are being called by the two biggest unions in Spain, the General Workers' Union and the Workers' Commissions.

Employers said they would not bend to union demands not to subcontract cleaning services at hotels as a way of getting around pay deals. "We have the right to run our businesses as we think best," said Miguel Sanchez of the Costa del Sol hotel owners' association.

Gonzalo Fuentes, of the Workers' Commissions, said the hotel owners on the Costa del Sol did not want to negotiate, "and what's more, they plan to cut some of our rights".

The last strike, more than 20 years ago, lasted 38 days, spoiling the holidays of hundreds of thousands of visitors.