Iberia And UGT and CCOO unions Negotiations will continue tomorrow, for the third day in a row, to keep ground handling (transportation) workers in the company’s orbit, following a four-day strike in the sector on the first weekend of January.
“We continued to negotiate with the company throughout the day, looked for alternatives and We decided to continue talking tomorrow“, UGT stated this Wednesday. The Spanish company also spoke in the same direction and shared that “talks will continue tomorrow.”
Unions want to continue in Iberia and demand ‘automatic processing’ for entire region IAG group (Iberia, vueling, British Airways, Weather Lingu And level), but the company claims that providing this service reduces its efficiency and that it is cheaper to be served by winners of the airport manager Aena competition, for which the airline lost contracts at eight major airports.
The company is ready to negotiate “as long as the transport operations and therefore the workers themselves are not put at risk” and remembers: The jobs and social rights of the affected workers are guaranteed by the collective agreement of the ground handling industry.
Context of the strike
After the strike called between 5 and 8 January, negotiations were resumed. Returning from Christmas breakMore than 40,000 passengers were affected by the incident, which forced Iberia to pre-emptively cancel 444 flights, but the airline said it had resolved more than 90% of the problem. There were also delays in the delivery of the suitcases.
The strike call was made by the UGT and CCOO – but on the same days that the USO called for independence – after Iberia lost service at most of Spain’s major airports (except Madrid), which forced it to replace workers in the companies that won the competition.
On strike days The biggest problems were experienced in baggage delivery services specifically at three of the twenty-nine airports where Iberia provides this service: barcelona, bilbao And Gran Canary. During the 4-day strike in ground handling services, punctuality was over 80 percent, the attendance rate of the protests never reached 20 percent, regularity was at 100 percent, and no additional flights were canceled except for 444 delayed flights. According to the company’s information.