Costa Lot Brings More Passengers ; Savoy Workers Accept The Sack ; More €uros For Buses
(29th May). ‘Costa Cruises Increases Visits to Funchal – The Italian group pushes the crisis aside and expects to bring more passengers to Madeira’. The company says that the sector is not feeling the crisis, and that passenger numbers are expected to increase, for Portuguese travellers, up 9.1% to 6,000. Next year it is expecting another 10% increase in Portuguese passengers, even after a reduction of cruise ships visiting Lisbon (down from 37 in 2008 to 20 this year and next). Funchal will have 44 visits per year, compared to 28 last year. Overall, last year Costa carried 1.2 million passengers, which they expect to increase to 1.5 million next year.
(28th May). ‘The Dispute Advances In The Dismissals At The Savoy – Workers have already started receiving letters of dismissal from the hotel. Around 10 workers have already agreed to the termination of their contracts’. The hotel workers trade union will proceed with it’s legal challenge against the collective redundancies made by the bosses of the now closed Savoy Hotel in Funchal, which is to be demolished and rebuilt. A union spokesman said that he is convinced that "it is possible to prevent the dismissals", considering that this is an illegal process based on "unfounded reasons", and adds that workers are being pressured into submission. Whilst I doubt whether the Savoy owners relish this bad publicity, their financial resources will surely flatten the trade union, either by making all the workers offers they can’t refuse, or through manipulation of legal processes. Probably getting near the time to lay down and quit, and just hope the new Savoy Hotel gets built quickly.
The government of Madeira has decided to dish out an extra €944 thousand to help five public transport companies through the financial crisis. Two of them are from the ‘Horários’ group of Funchal, that operate the bus service in that region (€644,000 & €40,000). The additional expenditure is justified in order to help the firms to meet the needs of society in economic, social, and environmental terms. It will help to compensate for loss of revenue resulting from higher personnel costs, and other increased expenditure, that was not anticipated in the normal subsidization that these companies receive. Rodoeste, that runs the buses on the west of Madeira, will receive an extra €98,000, SAM (East) €73,000 and the bus company that serves Caniço €47,000. In total over the last 8 years, the regional government has paid out nearly €24 million to these companies for operating their services.
(27th May). A partner of Thomas cook, the travel operator, has turned to the German government for help, suffering financial problems. Arcandor AG, a 26.41% shareholder in Thomas Cook, has given an ultimatum for help with a €900 million rescue package. It needs the money by 12th June to stay in business, after failing to get financial backing from the banks, even after reducing its 86,000 workforce by 12,500. Politicians and a large competitor have criticised the ultimatum blaming Arcandor AG for management errors in retailing. The company is an important contributor to Madeira tourism.
