The unions: Union Sindical Obrera (USO) and Union General de Trabajodores (UGT) handling more than 60000 airport staff employees across all Spanish airports have confirmed Thursday that there will be a strike on two days during the Easter weekend because the workers’ employer ASEATA couldn’t satisfy their demands of pay and conditions and no agreement has been reached to date. The first strike day will be on Easter Sunday April 21 and the second one is scheduled on April 24th. Other dates are expected to follow.
It may be noted here that these Unions on April 8th have earlier conveyed their displeasure about specific clauses in their collective agreement with ASEANA affecting workers who are transferred from one company to other and hinted at a possibility of going on an “indefinite strike” if their demands were not met. Some affected workers didn’t even get a pay hike since 2015.
It has been learnt now that the USO and the UGT had a meeting with the workers’ employer ASEATA but couldn’t reach any agreement in favor of the workers’ demands.
Isabel Rubio, secretary of Accion Sindical of the USO Aerial sector says “It was impossible to reach an agreement because the employer sought a blank check to withdraw the strike in exchange for nothing.”
In the wake of this, the Unions have confirmed Thursday that they have no other option but to call for a strike to get their problems solved.
These airport strikes will hit all Spanish airports during the peak Easter weekend and is expected to cause a lot of inconvenience to travelers flying into Spain. It has been reported that at least 5 million Brits are expected to visit Spain during this festival time.
