The Iberia Strike Committee decided to suspend the strike days scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday of next week, hoping that the company will reconsider and accept a new invitation to sit down and negotiate, one of those two days, which will be extended from the Government of the Canary Islands and the Labor Inspectorate dependent on the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs. In case of another breach by Iberia, the General Directorate of Labor of the Executive or the Labor Inspectorate will issue, no later than next Friday, a binding arbitration award that puts an end to the strike. The award is a decision or ruling issued by arbitrators in a labor conflict such as the one between Iberia and its workers at the Lanzarote airport.
The decision was made after a three-hour meeting at a negotiating table in which the union representatives of the strikers, the general director of Labor of the Government of the Canary Islands, Pedro Tomás Pino, and the head of the Labor Inspectorate of the Canary Islands, Juan de Dios Fernández, participated. The initial proposal of the public administrations was that the Strike Committee suspend the protest tomorrow, but in the face of Iberia's snub, the workers chose to maintain it and not do it on Wednesday and Thursday.
The president of the Cabildo, Inés Rojas, the island director of the State Administration, Marcial Martín, as well as the general director of Labor thanked the workers for their gesture of goodwill while reproaching and regretting the behavior of the Iberia company. Inés Rojas and Marcial Martín assured that if an agreement was not closed yesterday, it was simply because of Iberia's decision to ignore the call. "The workers have every right to demand what they consider fair, and if they could not reach the agreement that we all would have liked, it was because the other party was not present," the president of the Corporation said at a press conference. For his part, Marcial Martín admitted that he is not entirely happy, however, he stressed, "we have made substantial progress in resolving a problem that is important for our Island".
"The negotiator"
The General Directorate of Labor accepted the invitation to mediate from the Cabildo and the city councils, declaring itself fully competent to resolve this conflict in case of managing to bring both parties together. Therefore, it proposed to the negotiating table and committed, together with the Labor Inspectorate, to invite Iberia to negotiate again next week. "We have given Iberia a new opportunity to appear," said Pedro Tomás Pino. "We will intercede as mediators of good will between the parties to end this conflict," he added.
The Canarian Government, which is willing to mediate in problems as deep-rooted as that of the aerodrome, stated that if the airline leaves the workers and public institutions stranded again, it will request the competent labor authority to resolve the conflict through an arbitration award "because we understand that this situation cannot be allowed".
The territorial head of the Labor Inspectorate explained that there is still doubt as to which administration will issue the award, but he guaranteed that if necessary, it will simply be issued. "The minimum services have been decreed by the Ministry of Development. We have to see the decree of minimum services to know if it is the State or the Autonomous Community. It is a doubt that we have to resolve," said Juan de Dios Fernández.
A touch to Development
Iberia did not attend yesterday's meeting and may not do so during the next week, so the Cabildo, given this lack of guarantee, immediately urged the Ministry of Development and Spanish Airports and Air Navigation (AENA) to solve in some way the chaos of the air base. Inés Rojas demanded the implementation of all the necessary mechanisms to establish order at the entrance gate of Lanzarote.
Despite everything, hope is not lost. Marcial Martín is optimistic and believes that next week will be "crucial" for the resolution of the conflict. The island director, with visionary thinking, also bets on laying the foundations so that problems do not continue to occur in "the most strategic company on the Island" in the future. "90 percent of our wealth enters through the airport and therefore we must take special care of that company," he concluded.
