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 Daily news from the Canaries and the islands' biggest English language newspaper on-line Puerto politics Strikes and blacklists The political climate in Puerto de la Cruz in January continued to be as volatile as it was throughout 2009, with opponents being at each other’s throats or stirring up trouble in an effort to prevent efficient action whilst in bitter opposition.  To be fair on employees of both Tarajal and Ródano, the company contracted to run the cafes and restaurants, they were entitled to be desperate and annoyed. Both companies, initially contracted by the nationalists in 2007, have been in arrears with regards to paying salaries. The socialists appear to prefer to forget that massive debt problems at the town hall began years ago when their own party formed a company called Pamarsa to administer public services. The nationalists tried to reduce Pamarsa debts by putting the administration of certain services into private hands. The PSOE socialist party have always been opposed to private companies running municipal services and are perhaps right to be critical of a hasty privatisation before they took over the council early in 2007. The council is in serious danger of running out of money, even to pay staff wages. The economic crisis has hit the town very badly but the nationalists openly blame the previous socialist council of exacerbating the problem by spending for the sake of spending on social events, especially to satisfy minority groups with, for example, the introduction of Puerto’s Gay Week festival. They choose to forget the benefit of the pink pound and the possible tourist draw if the event becomes a success. With regards to the threatened strikes, the council has been doing its best to reduce tensions and, above all, to negotiate with the two companies responsible for the refuse collection and the public cafes and restaurants. Tarajal has received an injection of funds, which the finance councillor, Sandra Rodriguez, worked hard to find. This made it possible to please the workforce and to avoid another rubbish strike for the time being. There also appeared to be some initial satisfaction regarding a package put on the table to protect jobs at the municipal beach cafes and restaurants. The idea was for the council, to think again and to regain control of the beach cafes whilst Ródano maintained the administration of the Dinámico café on the main square. In fact the deal is not at all straightforward as it requires bank loans and guarantees and concessions to the owners of Ródano. Besides, as evidenced by the protests organised in front of the town hall in January, the unions, who back the ousted socialist group, were insisting that the package should also include the Dinámico or, in other words, that the nationalists should do a complete U-turn. The unions proclaimed that the nationalist-conservative government did not care a hoot about the workers. However in this climate it is inconceivable that anyone would not want to protect jobs as a necessary step to avoid further strikes and political complications. At the same time, although the consequences of the current economic crisis make life almost impossible for the governing allies, many seem to feel this teething industrial unrest could have been avoided if the nationalists had not implemented privatisations back in 2007. The affair could well become even more complicated in the coming weeks. This article appears in the print edition 609 of Island Connections
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