Kilometer-long queues at the check-in counters, delays in flight departures due to late boarding of luggage and hours of waiting for suitcases at the destination. This is the scenario that will be repeated in the Spanish airports of the January 5 to 8, in the middle of the Three Kings campaign and the return from vacation operation, if the negotiations between Iberia and the handling workers – ground service – do not come to a successful conclusion. CCOO, UGT and USO have strike called for the last Christmas weekend with the objective that the company activates a plan viability that guarantees the future of this business within the airline. A situation that affects around 5,000 workers in Spain, 600 in the Islands.
The protest comes after Iberia lost handling service at eight of the country’s main airports in September, Gran Canaria and Tenerife South, between them. Which forces the company to subrogate the workers who provided this service to the new company awarded the Aena tender. The unions reject this subrogation and demand that the company opt for “autohandling” to be able to provide service to all the airlines of the IAG group at the airports where it had lost the competition. A proposal to which, until nowIberia opposes considering that “it is not profitable”. Negotiations remain open, although the clock is ticking.
“They are installed in closure and immobility, but we remain open to negotiating,” says the head of the air sector of the Federation of Citizen Services of CCOO. Canary IslandsAntonio Sánchez, who recognizes that The situation at airports “could become very complicated” if the strike finally takes place.
Iberia lost handling at eight airports – Barcelona, Palma de Mallorca, Malaga, Alicante, Gran Canaria, Tenerife South, Ibiza and Bilbao – but the stoppages will occur at airports throughout Spain. “It is a problem that affects us all, the company intends to leave handling as a business and that has an impact on almost 10,000 jobs,” says the deputy secretary of the USO aviation sector, Isabel Rubio, who regrets the “damage” that it may cause. in the lives of users. “It is not our intention to ruin anyone’s Kings, we have children and we want them to have Kings for many years, we just want to keep our jobs,” she explains.
