The Spanish Union of Airline Pilots (Sepla) has called a strike at Air Europa for the first five days of May at all bases and work centers in Spain due to “the unacceptable demands of managers regarding the transfer of labor rights legitimate of this group”.

Thus, the Sepla specified today the calendar of the strike, which coincides with the May bank holiday, after informing yesterday of the start of the procedures for its call for dates to be determined in May and June, in response to “the null interest” of Air Europa for reaching an agreement that resolves the labor dispute after mediation promoted by the Interconfederal Mediation and Arbitration Service (SIMA) at the request of the company.

The measure responds to “the tension and labor conflict generated by the directors of Air Europa, playing with the rights of workers, disguising as proposals what represents a real loss of labor rights acquired in the IV Collective Agreement”, has qualified the union in a statement.

The pilots, who denounce that giving in to pressure from the company would have led to worse working and salary conditions in the short and medium term, “feel discriminated against by the company”, since it is the only labor group affected by how the airline acted in the various negotiations that he has held for salary reviews.

For Sepla it is “disheartening” to see how, in a last chance to avoid a strike with the mediation of SIMA, “the airline’s managers have opted for confrontation instead of negotiation, threatening and disqualifying the pilots instead of seek a point of understanding between both parties, as was the wish of the technical crew”.

The organization has recalled that the pilots have demonstrated their commitment to the future of the company, as was seen in the ERTE during the pandemic, with the high personal cost for these professionals.

In addition, the pilots point out that they have demonstrated their responsibility for social peace, as evidenced by the fact that the last call for a strike was in 2011.

The Sepla stresses that the pilots are not going to allow a business management that “seeks to profit at all costs” against the users, raising plane tickets by more than 54% in the last year, and the workers, with arbitrary impositions and cutting working conditions.

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