The Iberia Strike Committee decided yesterday to erase the gesture of goodwill made public last Friday in the sense of suspending the strike days of tomorrow and Thursday while waiting for Iberia to decide to come to negotiate this week. The Committee's spokesman, León Fajardo, assured this newsroom that the change of decision is due to the events of this Sunday in which five strikers were arrested for two hours at the Civil Guard post at the airport for refusing to leave the workplace, according to the version of Fajardo himself, one of those involved.
The strikers, who must appear to testify today in court Number 4 of Arrecife for alleged sedition against air transport and resistance to authority, announce the hardening of their position and demand the intervention of the island director, Marcial Martín, so that fundamental rights are not violated. "If the Island Directorate does not intervene, protected by the recent resolutions of the Labor Inspectorate that prove us right, we are legitimized to defend our rights in any way we see fit," Fajardo warned.
The Committee spokesman said that even if they wanted to suspend the strike they could not do so because the access cards to the airport have been confiscated, and therefore, since there is no strike, they would have the obligation to work, but without the credentials it is impossible to do so. "Anyone who does not show up for work in any company without justification can be fired," he commented. However, Fajardo left a door open saying that if they return the cards and allow them free access to the workplace "things can go another way."
The employees believe that if they are arrested today, the faces of those who are blatantly supporting Iberia will begin to be revealed. "There is a hidden power here that is violating the right that assists us," said Fajardo, who also described the behavior that, according to the Committee, may be led by the airport director, Dionisio Canomanuel, as "Francoist and hostile."
The events of Sunday
It was approximately 11:00 a.m. this Sunday, a typical strike day, when five strikers accessed the workplace at the airport, despite the restrictions of the Air Base Directorate, protected by the latest resolution of the Labor Inspectorate that alludes to the violation of that right. However, once inside (on the ramp) and after being there for an hour "supervising the union tasks," a security guard appeared to invite them to leave the site, telling them, according to the version of the Strike Committee spokesman, that the visiting hours had ended. "We said that we were the workers' delegates and that it was our right," narrated León Fajardo.
The workers did not leave. After 12:00 p.m., the Civil Guard brigadier arrived at the ramp informing them that they should leave the workplace, however, the employees refused to leave, stating the same arguments and urging the member of the security force to call the island director of the State Administration, Marcial Martín, but "he tells us that he does not have to call anyone and calls the airport director, Dionisio Canomanuel, insisting that we leave."
According to Fajardo's account, upon refusing again, they are asked for their ID and airport access card and they proceed to read them their rights while informing them that they are under arrest. "We sat down holding each other in a kind of human chain and after three Binter planes left, at about 12:45, the Civil Guard from Tías and Costa Teguise appeared to reinforce and between about 15 people they grabbed us, handcuffed us and put us in the luggage compartments of the cars taking us to the post that the Civil Guard has at the airport," said the union leader, who also indicated that in that place they made the respective diligence accusing them of sedition against air transport and resistance to authority.
Later, at 2:00 p.m. they released them and found that most of the Iberia workers, spontaneously, had left their jobs in a show of solidarity that filled them with emotion. Thus, the check-in and ramp areas were practically empty. "The colleagues felt distressed because even the patrols had the sirens on and a whole commotion as if we were terrorists," he said.
Suitcases and more suitcases
From 3:30 p.m. chaos took over the entrance door of Lanzarote again. About 27 planes that landed in both terminals did not unload their suitcases and neither were the ones on the ground loaded that had to travel to their destinations.
A part of the 7,000 suitcases of the passengers who left without them were transported yesterday to Fuerteventura to try to get them to their destination as soon as possible. For its part, 4,000 packages that came this Sunday, but were not unloaded from the planes, have not arrived on the Island.
