First two days of strike action suspended at Spain’s airports to allow ‘space’ for talks

THE first two days of planned strikes at all 46 Aena airports across the whole Spain have been postponed to allow more ‘breathing space’ for union talks with the management company – at the request of the government.

Following the request the CC OO, UGT and USO unions announced the industrial action will not start on September 15 as originally planned. 

The ‘breathing space’ was agreed after a meeting with Ministry of Public Works representatives, Aena and Enaire.

Francisco Casado of the CC OO union said, “After the meeting, the assessment we have made is favourable and, therefore, we have agreed to give them more time.” 

More talks are scheduled on Thursday 7 September and because the unions must inform the Ministry of Employment ten days before any strike action the stoppages on 15 and 17 September have been called off.

The announcement was applauded by the Minister of Development, Íñigo de la Serna, who thanked the unions for the gesture.

Workers’ representatives in the Aena group have threatened 25 days of 24-hour strikes since May  if their repeated demands on salary and calls for an employment plan were not answered before mid-August.

Regarding the specific demands of the unions, De la Serna said that the proposal for an increase in the workforce that goes beyond the replacement rate “still requires some debate.”

The original proposed dates of 24-hour work stoppages is as follows:

• September: 15, 17, 22, 24 and 29
• October; 1, 6, 11, 15, 27, 30 and 31
• November: 3 and 5
• December: 1, 4, 5, 7, 8, 10, 26, 27, 28, 29 and 30

Stoppages were due across the entire Aena airport and heliport network in Spain;

• A Coruña (LCG)
• Albacete (ABC)
• Algeciras (AEI)
• Alicante-Elche (ALC)
• Almería (LEI)
• Asturias (OVD)
• Badajoz (BJZ)
• Barcelona-El Prat (BCN)
• Bilbao (BIO)
• Burgos (RGS)
• Ceuta (JCU)
• Córdoba (ODB)
• El Hierro (VDE)
• Fuerteventura (FUE)
• Girona-Costa Brava (GRO)
• Gran Canaria (LPA)
• Granada-Jaén F.G.L. (GRX)
• Huesca-Pirineos (HSK)
• Ibiza (IBZ)
• Jerez (XRY)
• La Gomera (GMZ)
• La Palma (SPC)
• Lanzarote (ACE)
• León (LEN)
• Logroño-Agoncillo (RJL)
• Madrid-Barajas Adolfo Suárez (MAD)
• Madrid-Cuatro Vientos (LECU)
• Málaga-Costa del Sol (AGP)
• Melilla (MLN)
• Menorca (MAH)
• Murcia-San Javier (MJV)
• Palma de Mallorca (PMI)
• Pamplona (PNA)
• Reus (REU)
• Sabadell (QSA)
• Salamanca (SLM)
• San Sebastián (EAS)
• Santander-Seve Ballesteros (SDR)
• Santiago (SCQ)
• Sevilla (SVQ)
• Son Bonet (LESB)
• Tenerife Norte (TFN)
• Tenerife Sur (TFS)
• Valencia (VLC)
• Valladolid (VLL)
• Vigo (VGO)
• Vitoria (VIT)
• Zaragoza (ZAZ)

Aena  saw 230.2 million passengers pass through its airports in 2016. It made a net profit of €1,164 million in the same year.