The Supreme Court has settled, in an order of September 14, the appeals of the company Iberia regarding the strike by workers of that company at the Lanzarote airport in 2005 and has declared that the strike was legal.
From 2002 onwards, strikes were taking place at the airport due to the loss of labor rights. Subsequently, in June 2005, the strike was presented in response to Iberia's intention to abandon the airport's ground service and transfer the workers to another company without the rights acquired up to that moment.
It is that strike in June 2005, which is extended in October and lasts for several months, that Iberia appeals in the courts considering it illegal and abusive. The airline was asking the six members of the Strike Committee for more than one million euros in compensation. Court number 1 of Arrecife partially sided with the company in July 2007. The ruling was appealed by both parties.
In June 2009, the Social Chamber of the High Court of Justice of the Canary Islands (TSJC) dismissed Iberia's appeal and sided with the workers, declaring the strike legal. On September 14, the Supreme Court did not admit the company's appeal and declared the TSJC's ruling final.
"The strike is legitimate as a means of pressure"
The Supreme Court's order states that the strike is legal because all the formal requirements legally required for the declaration of a strike were met and because "the realization of a strike is legitimate as a means of pressure in the negotiations carried out with the company's management to resolve the existing problems in the workplace." It also says that it was not abusive because it was an intermittent strike.
The ruling adds that the disruption of the production process was not particularly serious nor were the economic damages disproportionate and that the minimum services were met without incidents worthy of mention, as well as that Iberia did not lose any contract with the companies to which it provided the 'handling' service.
The Workers' Commissions union has expressed satisfaction with the judicial decision and points out that it confirms that the strike met the legal requirements and that the company was never able to demonstrate the economic losses it claimed to have.
The union recalls that the company brought workers from outside the island to alleviate the effects of the strike and that Iberia exercised all the "pressure mechanisms at its disposal", at the highest level, to avoid control by the labor inspection. CCOO also points out that the situation worsened due to the "passive and biased" position of the airport director, Dionisio Canomanuel.
ACN Press
