TheUGTunion will call astrike in the 'handling' sector, ground assistance services to aircraft and passengers, in the week of the December bank holiday to demand"real, concrete and clear commitments"and avoid the reduction of workers' rights.
In Lanzarote, the recent handling tender for the next seven years, still frozen by Iberia's appeal, was awarded to the Belgian companyAviapartnerand the Spanish companyGroundforce, which will replace Swissport. Aviapartner does not yet have its own labor framework for its workers.
The date of the strike has yet to be determined, but it will be the week of the December bank holiday -between December 4 and 10- and will continue until the agents involved "assume their responsibilities."
In general, the union is critical of "all companies", pointing out that they have been violating workers' rights for around seven years. It also states that, in this latest tender, licenses have been granted at airports to companies against which there are complaints for non-compliance with agreements.
With all this, they demand that Aena include some mechanism to sanction, and even expel, any company that does not follow the line of legality, and stop "inhibiting its responsibility as a public promoter."
In a statement issued this Monday, UGT explains that the situation generated by the current 'handling' tenders, "not so much for their results as for their substance", has raisedmore uncertainty about social stabilityin the sector.
The union regrets that Aena, the airport manager,continues to fail to establish a"real, concrete and clear"commitmentto act in the face of situations of non-compliance with agreements, bearing in mind that it is the main player in the business.
UGT criticizes the constantbreaches of labor regulationsby all companies in the last seven years, with "thousands" of workers' claims, "dozens" of collective disputes and "repeated" strike calls, which has led to a situation ofsystematic judicializationof labor relations.
