Spain holiday warning as Brits face major changes to their hotel beds next month

UK tourists heading to Spain are warned their hotel beds may be changing next month.

Holidaymakers flying to sunny hotspots like Mallorca will be left without clean towels and bed linen due to a strike due to start on August 1.

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Laundry workers in the Balearic Islands have announced an indefinite strike from August 1 over wage disputes.

Union bosses say the offered £17.25 increase, which would take wages to £950 a month, is not enough.

Hotels in Ibiza, where most do their laundry in-house, are not expected to be massively affected.

But unions warn that the other big Balearic islands – Mallorca and Menorca – will be hit hard if the strike begins as planned at 7am next Tuesday.

Miguel Pardo, general secretary of the CCOO Habitat Balearas union, claimed that hotels would be the first to suffer because the minimum benefits that workers would have to guarantee in industrial disputes would be applied to essential services in places like hospitals.

The union boss told the local press: “It could have catastrophic consequences for tourism.”

“It will have a full impact on the hotels. There will be no sheets or towels.”

About 1,500 laundry workers are expected to walk out unless a last-minute mediation session with bosses leads to an agreement on pay and working conditions.

In addition to wage increases, union leaders are demanding improvements in rest regulations and extra money for night work, as well as a guarantee of two consecutive days off per week for their members.

Mr Pardo claimed workers were being exploited and many were leaving the company to find new work.

The two consecutive days off were dubbed a “red line” by union leaders.

Just over two million foreign tourists visited the Balearic Islands in August last year, making it the most visited region in Spain for foreign holidaymakers.

Just over 26 per cent of the foreign visitors were British, putting us second to the Germans, who made up just over 28 per cent of the total.

No official comment has yet been received from hotel associations on the union’s claims that a strike would be “disastrous” for tourism.