How many staff work in Telde on the strike day?

Under the 9 November agreement, 20 staff in five departments stay on duty. We calculated the total from the individual figures.

Are town halls on Gran Canaria closed on 11 November?

That is not confirmed. The Telde report gives no opening hours or closed counters, and says nothing about other councils.

Will the guaguas run on Gran Canaria on 11 November?

We found no minimum services for scheduled buses up to 9 November. Passengers should check the official website or ask the Autoridad Única del Transporte de Gran Canaria.

Are flights affected on 11 November?

German-language reports warn that flights in Spain could be affected. The latest reports, from 31 October, confirmed no cancellations, so visitors should ask their airline.

Telde strike 11 November: only 20 town hall staff on duty

Q: Who has called the general strike on 11 November?

CCOO and UGT have called it. In the Canaries, the Federación Sindical Canaria and Intersindical Canaria also back the strike.

Q: Do strikers lose a full day's pay?

According to a legal overview, pay is cut in proportion to the time not worked, with no fixed amount. Taking part is voluntary.

Which services keep running in Telde on 11 November?

Twenty Telde employees will stay on duty on Wednesday 11 November. Five work in social services, six in statistics and citizen services, five in municipal services, one in new technologies and three in personnel.

Mayor Juan Antonio Peña met the council's head of personnel and union representatives on Monday 9 November to set the minimum services. They agreed unanimously on the staff who will cover essential services.

Peña spoke of “respect for the constitutional right to strike” and of safeguarding essential public services. The report names no unions, no reasons for the strike and no legal basis.

Which counters are open or closed on 11 November, the report does not say. Anyone with business at Telde town hall should postpone it or ask first, for example via the official website.

What does the strike mean for visitors in the south?

Hotels, beaches and excursions in the south of Gran Canaria are not part of the 9 November agreement. It covers only Telde's municipal administration.

For scheduled buses (guaguas, the Canarian word for buses), Aena airports and Binter, we found no minimum services up to 9 November. That does not mean everything runs, only that nothing reliable has been published.

German-language travel reports warn that the strike could hit flights and trains in Spain. In the latest reports found, from 31 October, no cancellations had been confirmed.

Anyone flying on 11 November or with a booked transfer should ask the airline or the operator. For buses, the official website and the Autoridad Única del Transporte de Gran Canaria are the places to check.

Who has called the strike and why?

The unions CCOO and UGT have called the 24-hour general strike for 11 November. In the Canaries the Federación Sindical Canaria and Intersindical Canaria back it too, according to wider coverage rather than the Telde report.

According to Catalan News, it is the first 24-hour general strike by the big unions since 2012. Manuel Navarro, general secretary of UGT Canarias, said the last one was fourteen years ago.

The unions cite housing, prices and wages. At a press conference in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Navarro cited 211,000 empty homes and said renting out 20% of them could solve it.

Navarro says the Canaries have the lowest wages in the country. Daniel Casal of the Federación Sindical Canaria puts the gap to the national average at around 500 euros.

Navarro calls the strike one over labour law, without ruling out a political side. The unions reject the opposition's label of a “political strike”.

Who sets minimum services, and what does the strike cost workers?

According to the legal overview, the authorities set minimum services, never the company, and only for essential activities. For Cercanías (commuter trains), the minimum is 75% at peak times and 50% otherwise, per a Renfe notice seen only as a search result.

In Catalonia the regional government set 25% for local transport, valid from 06:30 to 09:30 and from 16:30 to 21:00. In the Balearics the education department set minimum services for teaching by decree, but we found no comparable order for the Canaries.

According to the legal overview, pay is cut in proportion to the time not worked, with no fixed amount. Taking part is voluntary, but the day does not count towards later unemployment benefit.

What is still unclear, and what happens next?

As of 9 November, it is unclear what minimum services apply to guaguas, Aena airports, Binter, health, education and the Gobierno de Canarias (Canary government). Nor is it known whether other Gran Canaria councils, including Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, have set their own rules.

We found no strike hours, expected turnout or publication in the BOC (Canary Islands official gazette) or BOE (Spain's state gazette). Further orders may follow before or on 11 November.

Vanesa Frahija, general secretary of CCOO Canarias, hopes for no abusive minimum services. According to the legal overview, courts overturned minimum services in air transport as abusive in earlier strikes.

The campaign for the parliamentary election starts on 13 November, with voting on 29 November. Casal does not rule out another general strike in the Canaries after 11 November.