The UGT and CCOO unions have announced this Friday four days of strike in Iberia’s handling, for January 5 to 8 – which the company considers “unjustified” because it has made an “ambitious” offer. – after they suspended an earlier announcement of protests pending new negotiations.
As reported by the unions, after a meeting at the Iberia headquarters between the company’s management, the unions themselves and representatives of the Ministry of Transport, no agreement was reached, which is why they announced this measure, which had been suspended last year. Wednesday.
The protest comes after Iberia lost the handling service (ground services) at eight of the country’s main airports, except Madrid, in the tender awarded by Aena in September, so it must replace the workers who provided this service through Iberia Airport Services in the new concessionaires.
The unions do not want this subrogation and are betting that Iberia does ‘autohandling’ for all the companies of the IAG group – to which it belongs together with British Airways, Vueling, Aer Lingus and Level – an option that the company rules out because it has higher costs. than contracting it with third parties and would lead to losing positions with its competitors.
The company has proposed creating a “hybrid” model owned by an IAG Group company, “even exploring the possibility of this vehicle being 100% from the IAG group at airports where it made sense”, which would carry out the handling for all flights. airlines of the group in the eight airports in which the company lost the license and that would preserve the competitive position of the business.
The unions do not accept this ‘joint venture’ with a new company not owned by Iberia, “without applying the current Iberia agreement and assuming responsibility for the workers’ costs” and ask that a company 100% owned by Iberia manage the ‘autohandling’ for the IAG group.
Iberia regrets in a statement that the unions broke off dialogue with the company and resumed the call for an “unjustified” strike, so their proposals “are automatically withdrawn” and “the only solution contemplated is subrogation to the companies awarded the tender “.