Bus drivers look set to strike in Majorca, Menorca and Ibiza amid a statement in negotiations with employers over pay and working conditions. Talks have been ongoing for the past six months, with little sign of progress.
Juan Rodríguez, president of the works council and a bus driver for 20 years, insisted that the strike will go ahead “100%”. “The employers are not budging. Our patience is running out.” He added that there has been no contact with the Balearic Transport Federation for almost a month. 24-hour stoppages which look set to cause carnage on the popular Balearic Islands are scheduled for July 18, 21 and 23, just as school summer holidays begin in the UK. If there is no agreement, the strike will be indefinite from the 25th.
In 2025, the school summer holidays in the UK officially begin on Wednesday July 23 and many will be jetting straight off to Spain to enjoy the sunshine.
The TIB transport brand includes trains and the metro, but the planned action will only affect bus operators. There are three in Majorca and two in Menorca and Ibiza. The EMT buses in Palma are separate.
Workers’ assemblies have already given support, in principle, for strike action. If this goes ahead, buses will be subject to minimum service levels. However, the potential impact on the height of the tourism season looks set to be greater than that of the proposed hospitality industry strike, which has since been called off. According to TIB last year, nearly 6.5 million passengers used their buses between January and April, a 42% increase compared to the same period in 2023, and that was before the peak summer season.
According to Mr Rodríguez, there is hope that mediation by the TAMIB arbitration tribunal, due to begin on Tuesday (July 15), will bring some change, but “management will have to change a lot for there to be progress”, according to the Majorca Daily Bulletin.
The SATI, the union involved in the negotiations, is seeking a 9.6% pay increase for this year, plus increases of half a percentage point above inflation for 2026 and 2027. However, thus far the employers have only tabled 8.9% over four years.
In addition, the workers want a seniority supplement (in respect of years worked), which has not been updated for 17 years, unfrozen. Regarding working conditions, they are demanding a reduction in the maximum working day, regulation of breaks during the workday, improved weekly rest, and facilities for early partial retirement.
Rodríguez also called for the urgent modernisation of the collective bargaining agreement (CBA) – a legally binding agreement negotiated between employers and employee representatives to establish the terms and conditions of employment – which has remained practically the same for 40 years and contains ambiguous clauses that lead to differences of interpretation by the concessionaire operators.
The employers’ pay offer does not include a seniority element and does not affect other aspects of the agreement, which the union has described as completely “insufficient.”
