A new meeting to try to end the Swissport workers' strike at the Guacimeta airport has ended this Friday without an agreement. The Works Council itself hoped that this meeting would serve to end this labor dispute, but finally the meeting has been frustrated by disagreements on one of the points.
"In everything else we were almost in agreement," one of the representatives of this Committee, Lorenzo Montelongo, explained to La Voz, who acknowledges that they themselves thought they were "going to sign today." In addition to other "loose ends" that they were negotiating, the main controversy with the latest draft presented by the company was in the recognition of the hours that part-time workers provide.
The convening unions intended to consolidate the annual average carried out during the last year, which they put at 30 hours per week. Finally, the company's latest offer involved recognizing this number of hours to 25 of the 50 people who currently work part-time. And although the Committee was willing to accept it, what it has not assumed is that Swissport presented a "closed list" with the names of those people, "in order of seniority".
In this regard, the Committee proposes that this should be offered voluntarily. In this way, even if the same list were respected, a worker could resign and give way to the next in seniority. However, they maintain that the company has rejected that possibility. Thus, based on Swissport's proposal, if any employee does not take advantage of the recognition of those hours, another would not be given way.
The problem for the workers is that some have already filed lawsuits in court on this issue, and believe that accepting this agreement could harm them in the lawsuit. And there are also others who would not be interested in having more hours recognized than they currently work. For this reason, the Committee understood that this point should be modified, leaving it as something voluntary and not with a closed list.
Hour and a half recess
During the meeting held in the Arrecife Courts, which was also attended by the Minister of Tourism, Echedey Eugenio, the company representative requested a recess to call the company, after negotiations stalled on this point. "It took an hour and a half," questions Lorenzo Montelongo, who considers the time the recess lasted excessive, especially considering that the Committee had already called an assembly for after the meeting.
During that recess, the members of the Strike Committee were informing the assembly of the point the negotiation was at, and it conveyed to them its intention not to give in on this point. Thus, when the company representative returned and informed them that that part of the draft would not be modified, they decided to get up and end the meeting without an agreement.
Thus, the strike that began on August 22 has not been called off. However, the Committee planned to analyze the steps to follow this Friday, given that 19 days of strike have already been completed, with what this implies in the reduction of income for the workers who are supporting it. In fact, this could affect the adherence to a strike that until now has not managed to cause a great impact on the operation of the airport.
The Committee accuses the company of "illegal" practices against the strike
The Committee itself recognizes that the incidence has not been high, although they blame the measures applied by the company, which they consider "illegal" and which they have already denounced in the courts, including the use of "scabs" who have moved from other areas. However, they assure that there have been delays in flights "that the company does not want to recognize" and maintain that there are "very angry" tour operators.
Now, after the new failure of the negotiations, in principle the strike will continue, although the unions are studying a "plan b" to maintain their demands. "People are getting tired and everyone thought it was going to end today," they acknowledge from the Committee, which still maintains that the decision of the assembly this Friday has been to continue with the strike.
