We Want Our Money Back: Town hall employees in Muro

Along the canal in Playa de Muro that connects Albufera with the sea are moorings for boats. These are not grand boats; they are mainly small fishing craft. The owners have been expressing their concerns regarding security. And have been doing so for nigh on two years. They have wanted a security barrier to be installed, but have also wanted greater vigilance from the police.

The local police in Muro have not had an easy relationship with the town hall. In March there were complaints that they had to go out on patrol wearing their own clothes because the town hall was only issuing uniforms as and when they were necessary. The mayor added that the town hall was aware that there was some moonlighting where uniforms were concerned; boots being worn by some local police when they went hunting.

Prior to the complaints about uniforms, it was revealed that Muro town hall was one of the island’s authorities that had overseen a massive increase in its spending on personnel since the turn of the century. A 152% rise on town hall employees, which include the police. And this rise was set to become higher because of pay increases for staff from the start of this year.

The mayor, Martí Fornés, sought opinion from the regional government as to these increases which had been previously approved by all parties at the town hall, including that of the mayor before he assumed office. This all-party agreement was emphasised by the spokesperson for the opposition socialist group who admitted that the increases of around 5% were illegal in that they contravened a law which was allowing for only 0.3% increases. He pointed out that everyone knew they were illegal, but still approved them for employees who were in any event earning less than their counterparts in neighbouring towns.

The government ruled unsurprisingly that the increases were indeed illegal and so, commencing with salary payments from October, insisted that the money be paid back, be it through monthly deductions, a one-off deduction or through the withholding of at least part of the Christmas bonus. Also unsurprisingly the news didn’t go down well with the opposition and especially the employees.

To make the point that there was dissatisfaction, town hall employees staged a protest during Muro’s fair over the weekend of 13-14 November, confronting the mayor with their grievance. The town hall has now announced that it will look at disciplinary procedures against three employees for abandoning their places of work in order to make the protest.

That no one appears to dispute the illegality of the salary increases might make you wonder what the fuss is about. But try telling that to the employees, faced with lower pay packets in the lead-up to Christmas. It doesn’t do much for morale, and this leads us back to the police and their uniforms and to the boats and their security as well as to security in a resort with high numbers of unattended holiday and second homes and a town which has suffered like others from the noise and mess of the botellón.

Pay increases may have to be in line with government stipulations, but a wider issue lies with priorities in public spending. Sure it’s a different budget, but was it wholly appropriate that in March Muro town hall should have spent getting on for half a million euros in purchasing the town’s bullring from Grup Balaña? This stages one fight a year. The town hall has spoken about other events being held, but what are they and who would be paying for them?

The town hall was also faced, having acquired the bullring, with spending more in order that it should meet health and safety requirements so that the bullfight could be put on. Heritage is one thing, but when money is tight it might be argued that employees such as the police deserve greater priority, to which one might add the contractor for rubbish collection which, as it was being reported in early October, had outstanding invoices for the first eight months of the year.

Town hall finances, not just in Muro, are in a mess. Partly this may be due to staffing levels; Muro’s 152% increase in personnel spend over the last decade is not solely down to salaries. But as important is that what money there is is spent wisely. Yes, Muro’s employees have been paid money they shouldn’t have been, but you can understand their being upset and their being prepared to voice this. Disciplining them is not the answer, as the bigger question should relate to sound financial management and not morale-sapping personnel management.

Chinese Tourism
My thanks to Alastair for pointing out that I missed a bit of a trick where Chinese tourists were concerned, namely … gambling. I should have been more on the ball, roulette or otherwise, in recalling that some while ago there was discussion in Alcúdia as to what Chinese workers do with themselves when not working. The answer was, of course, that they are pumping coins into slot machines. With this in mind, therefore, the opening of several more casinos in Mallorca is what is needed to secure a Chinese tourism future. Or else, they’ll all be off to the multi-casino, multi-theme park “Gran Scala” near Zaragoza.

Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.

Chinese Water Torture: Tourism from China

In Palma there is an undistinguished shop which has in its name the words “El” and “Corte”. Not the grand department store of El Corte Inglés, but a Chinese bazaar called El Corte Chino. Had a bit of shopping been on the agenda when Xi Jinping came a-visiting, the former would have been on the itinerary and not the bazaar. One imagines that the vice-president of China has already got shedloads of plastic flowers and tea-towels back home in the official residence.

Xi has been in town, Palma that is. Suddenly Mallorca has become the voguish destination for world leaders and their wives, Mrs. Obama having stopped over for a spot of lunch with the royals back in the summer. Of the two, Xi is considerably more important. For one very good reason: all his fellow countrymen and women. Those on whom Mallorca has its eye as potential tourists and as potential purchasers of local wine and olive oil.

In March this year the first international congress looking at Chinese-Spanish tourism took place in Palma. The background to this was the Chinese Government’s intention, by 2015, to be overseeing the despatch of some 83 million Chinese tourists overseas. Mallorca and Spain are rather keen on getting some of the action. The congress looked not just at the bigger picture of all those millions hacking through Palma airport but also at the detail as to how to treat Chinese guests – what they eat, what they want to see and what they buy. And one presumes that these needs and wants extend beyond a Chinese restaurant all-you-can-scoff-for-eight-euros “buffet libre” and being unable to go shopping at a Chinese bazaar hypermarket because it’s been declared to be illegal.

As importantly, the congress sought to address how to eliminate mental barriers that might impede what otherwise might be a pot of tourism gold at the Far-Eastern end of the rainbow. And these are not just barriers which might exist in the minds of Mallorcans or Spaniards. Spain is still a country largely unknown to most Chinese; there’s a lot of education to be undertaken before they start flocking in. It helps of course if promotion is done with Chinese lettering, though not if it means paying a grand per letter in order to translate the name of the one-time Balearics tourism promotion agency – IBATUR.

But were all these Chinese to one day turn up, what would they want from Mallorca? Local nosebag? Sun and beach? Neither would be at the top of the Chinese tourist’s wish-list. He or she is not a great experimenter when it comes to cuisine, so you can forget much of that gastronomy malarkey, but be grateful that Sa Pobla is expanding its rice output and that Mallorca has its own line in noodles.

As for sun and beach, well the Chinese might like to look at the sea, rather like British pensioners lined up on benches or in deckchairs in Eastbourne and staring out at the Channel, but they’re not wildly keen on all the tanning. White skin is revered, insofar as the Chinese have white skin. The sight of a German roasting into an ever darker shade of mahogany or a Brit radiating like the stop signal on a traffic light suggests that special enclaves would need to be found for the Chinese to prevent them from being offended by all the off-white bodies.

At the risk of racial stereotyping, when a group of Chinese “lads” were on the local beach a couple of summers ago, I found it distinctly odd. I mean, you just don’t see the Chinese on the beach. The sea, for them, seems to be like some sort of Chinese water torture, especially if they are confronted by factored-up sun worshippers.

There are further problems for Mallorca, one a different form of water torture to be overcome – that of cold water, which the Chinese don’t drink. Then there is the fact that earlier this year we discovered that the Chinese rate Greece as their favourite tourist destination. Not, one presumes, because they head off for industrial quantities of industrial alcohol in Zante but because they are all traipsing around the Acropolis. Which means, therefore, culture. Ah yes, culture. Mallorcan culture. Of which there is so much. There is some but it’s not on the scale of a Spanish city such as Santiago de Compostela, earmarked a few years ago as a “recommended” destination for the Chinese tourist and something which puts into context a scheme in Torremolinos to organise Chinese tourist guides. Torremolinos!?

So when, or rather if the Chinese descend on Mallorca, it will be to Bellver Castle or the Tramuntana mountains that they ascend. Which is probably as well in the case of the mountains, for there is one further thing about the Chinese. The smoking. That which they wouldn’t be able to do in bars or restaurants.

Xi’s visit will doubtless be spun as being deeply significant in terms of fostering the development of Chinese tourism to Mallorca, but if what appeals to the Chinese are culture and scenery, there are, unfortunately for Mallorca, any number of places with far more culture and far more scenery. 83 million? Probably have to settle for 83.

Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.