The spokesperson for the strikers, León Fajardo, described Iberia's decision not to accept the voluntary arbitration proposed by the public administrations as a "new snub", but confirmed late in the afternoon that in a new gesture of responsibility they decided to maintain the suspension of the strikes this Thursday and next Sunday.
Fajardo said that Iberia's only proposal continues to be to call off the strike in exchange for nothing. "If there is any kind of negotiated solution later, we will maintain the suspension of the strike," the union leader recalled. The workers are firmly committed to a negotiated solution because going to court would mean waiting around four years, taking into account that Iberia would appeal if the ruling was against its interests.
"We cannot make decisions in one place when we can contaminate 40 airports." With these words, the director of Airports of Iberia, Fernando Sarmentero Vidal, summarized the reasons why the company rejected the voluntary arbitration board to resolve the handling services strike, which has already lasted more than two months.
Iberia stated that it cannot voluntarily accept arbitration, nor yield to demands that, according to its interpretation, not only go against the application of the Sector Agreement, but also undermine the labor relations model that the company has established at a national level and, therefore, are discriminatory for the 10,000 handling employees.
However, the workers emphasize that at no time are they asking to negotiate the Ground Assistance Services Agreement, but precisely what they demand is its absolute compliance.
Iberia responds that the demands of the Strike Committee come at a time when the company foresees a significant loss of activity at the Lanzarote airport, which makes it completely impossible to accept measures that further endanger the future viability of handling on the Island. Sarmentero Vidal warned that Iberia has the necessary support to win the appeal filed against the resolution of the Labor Inspection that supports the position of the Strike Committee.
Alleged coercion
The most surprising thing about the statements of the Iberia representative is that he attributed the serious incidents at the airport to "other mechanisms" when 7,000 suitcases were left on the ground one Sunday and another 4,000 could not be unloaded from the planes due to lack of personnel. Asked what mechanisms he was referring to, he replied: "If there are mechanisms of coercion against the workers by some workers that force people to leave... I have nothing more to say."
According to Iberia, the irrational attitude of the Strike Committee is calling into question the credibility and reliability of the service offered by the company, which is why it sees itself in a dead end and is forced to seriously consider its participation in the tenders to renew the handling license in Lanzarote.
