The Canary Islands, and the tour operators, already outraged after an initial round of calls seeking opinions in southern Gran Canaria, who know little about earthquakes and nothing about tremors, are facing a shock that comes not from the bowels of the earth, but from the throats of the offices. The 112 workers, that voice in the shadows that asks you what's going on, are on the warpath. The Canary Islands Government, in its infinite wisdom, has decided that the company that coordinates life and death in the Archipelago, the Management of Health and Safety Services in the Canary Islands (GSC), must be divided. And seen from Maspalomas, the idea, far from being absurd, has the overwhelming logic of survival.
The chaos of Las Palmas can no longer anchor the south. Maspalomas, the true tourist heart of the island, cannot afford for a tourist's care in Playa del Inglés or an incident in the Dunes to depend on a central office besieged by the threat of a strike. The "single model" they boast about so much has been revealed as a fragility, a system so centralized that, when it coughs in the capital, it catches a cold across the entire island.
The unions, which haven't set a date for the strike, have issued the warning. It's a sword of Damocles hanging over the heads of a population that, on extremely hot days like this week (with peak temperatures of 40 degrees Celsius), depends more than ever on a responsive and seamless emergency service. Is the life of a tourist in the south worth less than that of a resident of the capital?
The theory of the works councils, which fear for their stability, is respectable. But the need for a municipality that thrives on tourism to manage its own destiny is no less respectable. The idea of a 112 for Maspalomas is not a fragmentation; it's an act of legitimate defense against a system that has proven vulnerable in Las Palmas. While the theory of a business division is being discussed in the capital, the south is experiencing the practice of risky dependence. The strike, like volcanoes, has yet to be finalized. But the need to take control of the south has already erupted.
