Swissport Handling workers at Guacimeta airport have called an "indefinite" strike at the Lanzarote aerodrome. According to CC.OO., the stoppages will begin next Monday, "if an agreement does not prevent it before." The unions that have promoted the strike, CC.OO. and USO, have warned in this regard that the strike "threatens to paralyze the island's tourist activity," recalling that Swissport operates 180 weekly flights on the island. They have also pointed out, however, that the minimum services required of them "are almost 100%", something they describe as "abusive".
According to these unions, Swissport operates with 26 airlines, including the British Monarch, the German Air Berlin and the Spanish Vueling, as well as "many others grouped around the major tour operators Thomas Cook and Thompson". "In total, Swissport manages 180 weekly flights that would be affected by the strike at Lanzarote airport, starting with the 16 that are scheduled for Monday, the day the stoppages begin," they say. To the extent that the strike is indefinite, the 30 flights on Tuesday, the 9 on Wednesday, the 42 on Thursday, the 17 on Friday, the 30 on Saturday and the 35 on Sunday would also be affected. "And so every week that the strike continues," they add.
The unions have criticised the company's "closed attitude" to "sit down and negotiate", "given the magnitude of these figures for the Lanzarote tourist market". "It seems that only the unions are willing to avoid this conflict," they say. In this regard, they stress that this has already happened in the Swissport conflicts in other airport facilities, such as those in Barcelona and Valencia, in which, they say, "the company preferred conflict to dialogue with workers".
"It's going to be very difficult for them to guarantee the entire operation"
In their statement, the unions denounce that the company "has not even agreed to negotiate the minimum services", limiting itself to presenting them with a document, "of which we could not even make a copy to study it with the legal services". However, the unions denounce that the "shortcomings of the staff are such that they will even have difficulties in pointing out and complying with minimum services".
"As the staff is so short of personnel, it is going to be very difficult to guarantee the entire operation, because what is forbidden when there is a strike called is to extend the working day, to work overtime...and that is happening every day to be able to guarantee the normal operation of the flights", Pedro Moreno, general secretary of the Federation of Services to the Citizenry of CC.OO, explained to La Voz, who sees it as "very difficult" for the company to "guarantee the entire operation".
The unions plan to hold an assembly this Friday at 5:00 p.m. at the Comisiones Obreras premises in Arrecife. At that meeting, Moreno said, "we will see the latest news, if the company has called, if we have been summoned...". "But the strike is planned," he adds, stressing that its call has already been decided, the notice has already been presented and only an "agreement" could avoid it.
The reason for the strike is the "repeated breaches of the regulations on prevention and occupational hazards, by not protecting the health of all the workers who make up the base", they point out. The unions have been denouncing for months the working conditions of Swissport employees on the island. Thus, they denounce that the staff "exerts an overexertion and suffers from work-related stress, reaching a very considerable number of sick leaves that are not even replaced". They also demand the "consolidations of average working days, increases in working days and transformations of temporary contracts to permanent ones". On the other hand, CC.OO. and USO denounce the "repeated non-compliance in more than six months of the creation of the job bank provided for in the collective agreement". "The aim of the strike is to promote negotiation and seek a definitive solution to this unsustainable situation from a personal and labour point of view for the workers affected", they point out.
