The Iberia Works Council will sue the director of Lanzarote Airport, Dionisio Canomanuel, for considering that he was responsible for expelling the strikers from the workplace. This was announced to this editorial office by León Fajardo, spokesperson for the workers.
"The Civil Guard showed up this Thursday afternoon and expelled us," said Fajardo, who also confirmed that the president of the Cabildo, Inés Rojas, intends to mediate in the labor conflict and has summoned the Strike Committee to a meeting next Monday at 8:00 a.m. at the Corporation's headquarters.
Leave the workplace
Fajardo assured that an officer of the Civil Guard told them that they had to leave the workplace this Thursday afternoon. "Without offering any resistance, we withdrew, but before we asked the civil guard for his badge number," he stressed.
According to the Works Council, both Spanish Airports and Air Navigation (AENA) and Iberia are doing everything possible to ensure that the strike by ground service workers has no effect.
The Works Council considers it shameful that a security force such as the Civil Guard evicts workers, and for this situation they will ask the Insular Directorate of the State Administration for explanations. "We will ask Marcial Martín to clarify who is giving the orders to evict us and under what criteria," said Fajardo. "What is clear is that the Civil Guard does not act without receiving orders from someone," he added.
Another lawsuit
Likewise, the Works Council announced that it will also sue the manager of the private company Vinsa, which provides security services at the airport, because every time workers want to access the workplace, he claims that he has personnel problems to prevent them from entering it.
Fajardo is convinced that the union freedom of the employees is being blatantly violated and denounced that the workers receive threats and pressure from the Iberia bosses when they are carrying out their work on the ramp. "Every time there are possibilities of delaying the planes, they kick us out of the workplace."
Collaboration with Iberia
The union leader commented that the head of scale or the head of ramp, the highest positions of Iberia in Lanzarote, go down to the runway and tell them that they are going to kick them out and intimidate them with sanctions.
The Works Council believes that AENA collaborates with Iberia to reduce the presence of workers and recalls that the Labor Inspectorate has met twice with the Airport Director to warn him about the violation of union rights.
The workers are advancing an indefinite strike on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Sundays, however, they recognize that Wednesday is a day of little movement at the airport, and therefore the consequences of the protest are not very noticeable.
Dark future
Baggage handlers, administrative staff and ground plane attendants from Iberia remain on strike due to the uncertainty of their future after the handling contract between Iberia and Binter Canarias ends on July 26. Of the 180 workers that the company has in Lanzarote, 130 are permanent and 50 are temporary. Of these, forty permanently hired employees could be left on the street if the conflict is not resolved.
An authorized source from the Binter company assured that the airline will not negotiate with Iberia the renewal of the contract for ground services at the Canary Islands airports and, on the contrary, is finalizing the formation of a staff of 350 workers to create its own handling.
