CCOO denounces that he was not given the card that corresponds to him

León Fajardo rejoins his job at the airport after recovering from the hunger strike

One thousand five hundred and forty-nine days after his dismissal by Iberia, Leo Fajardo returned on Wednesday morning to his job at the Lanzarote airport. In the path of these four years have ...

March 10 2010 (07:00 WET)

One thousand five hundred and forty-nine days after his dismissal by Iberia, Leo Fajardo returned on Wednesday morning to his job at the Lanzarote airport. In the path of these four years, there have been four trials, two dismissals, a transfer to Madrid, a leave of absence and a two-week hunger strike to get Aena to return the access card to his job.

Fajardo worked in the ground service of Iberia and was a member of the works council. In 2002 and 2005 he was the most visible face of two long strikes with great impact and negative consequences on tourism. In November 2005, Aena decided to withdraw his access card to his job and Iberia, to dismiss him for this reason.

From there, several trials for unfair dismissal followed. Fajardo wins the first one. The ruling recognizes that the card has been withdrawn without instructing the file, that he only has two minor offenses and not three (condition to withdraw the card) and that it is withdrawn in November for the second time, after having returned it and for events that occurred in August. It was returned with the commitment to negotiate the end of the strike and was withdrawn again after the decision to return to the strike.

The ruling also recognizes that the dismissal occurs due to his status as a trade unionist and points out that Iberia has in this case "a passive attitude, of tolerance, permissiveness and approval to the actions of Aena".

Transfer

After his reinstatement, the company sends him to Barajas for thirteen months. "The hardest thing was separating from my family," Fajardo said this morning at the airport. He is married and has a four-year-old son. He requests a suspension of contract and returns to Arrecife to work for six months as a gardener. Later, the Iberia service is provided by the company Clece, obliged to subrogate the workers. Fajardo is also fired, he appeals and wins the trial again in March 2009.

The only trial that Fajardo loses is the one for the transfer to Madrid, although the 2009 ruling considers that transfer null. He is also sentenced to six months in prison, which he will not have to serve, along with four other colleagues for invading the track during the strike. The rest of the colleagues continue working.

Since then, Fajardo had to rejoin his job but Aena does not grant him the card and he receives his salary without having to go to the airport. Given the refusal of the airport management to return the card, alleging that he breached the National Security Plan, he began a hunger strike a month ago that ended in two weeks with the card in his possession.

The strike

The strike, which ended on February 26, was unnecessarily prolonged, since Aena decided to grant him the card from the 19th. The board of directors of the public company discussed this case in one of its sessions and the conflict could be resolved thanks to the efforts made by the CCOO union and the Government Delegation in the Canary Islands.

The card, however, is not returned until Friday the 26th. That day the local security committee met to grant him the card without contradicting its previous resolution. From CCOO it is considered that the meeting was a staging to not look bad. The union personalizes the impediments in the director of the airport Dionisio Canomanuel, whom, according to his island secretary Victoria Sande, Fajardo is going to denounce through criminal proceedings.

The director

Canomanuel had a prominent role during the 2005 strike, newly arrived as director after his time as director of the Palma de Mallorca airport. At that time, the members of the works council had their access cards withdrawn without reason. He was also the one who denounced Aminatu Haidar for disturbances at the airport during her hunger strike, for which she was sentenced to a fine of 180 euros.

Fajardo rejoined this morning at twelve noon. This week he will have to receive a refresher course. Already dressed in the work uniform, he took his son to school and went to Arrecife to the union headquarters where he received support from his colleagues. For her part, Sande regretted that it had been necessary to go to the extreme of the hunger strike and stressed that the dismissals were made for union reasons, for asking for improvements in the job.

Supports

Fajardo will now have to claim the card that belonged to him, since according to the union the agreement reached by Aena was to return the one that accesses the boarding area, and finally they have given him one of a lower rank. The worker thanked his wife and colleagues at the airport terminal for their support and pointed out that the struggle of these four years has been worthwhile, while acknowledging that he is still an annoying person for the company and does not expect a good reception.

ACN Press

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