Lanzarote airport has not suffered the consequences of the strike starring from today, Friday, November 11, by the workers of the airline company Binter. All flights scheduled in Guacimeta departed with absolute normality. The situation was similar in the rest of the Archipelago, according to sources from the Canarian airline company.
Its communication director, José Luis Reina, assured that the incidence on the first day of the strike called by the union was "null", and that the normality in its operations during Friday was "total", even to the point that 5% more passengers were registered than last Friday. Meanwhile, the Comisiones Obreras (CCOO) union assured that the decrease in travelers was 50%.
Reina stated that there was no follow-up of the call by the workers, who worked "with the same speed and professionalism" as on a normal day. He specified that in the 37 flights that departed on Friday morning from the Canary airports, there was only "a delay of 16 minutes" in one of them, caused by a change of plane due to the replacement of a wheel.
Union version
The Federation of Communication and Transport of CCOO Canarias reported first thing this morning that the flights of the company Binter were beginning to accumulate "significant delays" due to the development of the first day of strike.
CCOO assured that the strike caused "a significant decrease" in the number of airline passengers, whose flights departed with 50% of the usual occupancy.
On the contrary, other airlines with the same destinations registered "significant increases" in the number of travelers, according to the Federation of Communication and Transport of the union.
Despite the fact that Binter made the bintazo (significant discounts on the price of tickets) coincide with the first day of strike, the company's counters "appeared empty in all the Canary airports, because the users opted for other means of transport", CCOO affirmed.
The union has denounced that the strike is being carried out in a situation of "clandestinity" because the Government of José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero has decreed 100% of the minimum services, "with the approval of the Canarian Executive, which forces us to exercise the right to strike as in the worst years of the Franco regime", indicated the general secretary of the Federation, Pedro Moreno.
Origin of the conflict
Comisiones Obreras has presented a strike notice for the days 11, 13, 14, 18, 20, 21, 25, 27 and 28 of November and 2, 4 and 5 of December "due to the freezing for 8 months of the negotiations of the collective agreement and the lack of information from the company about its future plans".
Last week, in the Canarian Labor Court, CCOO got up from the table and confirmed that there would be a strike this Friday after verifying "the little negotiating will" of the company.
The company maintains, however, the offer that it already presented to the union last week. Open from next day 16 (Wednesday) a negotiating table to debate the situation of the agreement that will be held two days a week, at the same time that they committed to show next day 17 (Thursday) the future plans of the company, which the union has already claimed on several occasions.
