HOLIDAYMAKERS planning a trip to Spain this week can breathe a sigh of relief after strikes that threatened to cripple services and trigger frustrating delays at airports across the country were called off.
Around 3,000 ground staff and baggage handlers from the Menzies group were set to launch industrial action on April 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 to coincide with Semana Santa celebrations – one of the busiest weeks of the year with millions passing through Spain’s key travel hubs.
However, the walkout will no longer go ahead after leaders from the General Workers’ Union (UGT) struck a deal at the eleventh hour with higher-ups at Menzies.
Union representatives said workers were furious over poor working conditions and the application of collective agreements for ground handling services.
But a last-ditch agreement was reached on Tuesday in which the company agreed new financial guarantees for transferred employees and resolved differences over fixed and variable bonuses and annual working hours.
The Menzies group have also pledged to address the management of overtime and shift scheduling, which they say will be ‘reviewed and improved to ensure proper implementation, avoiding the constant errors that had been occurring in the company’s management of them’.
The company, which won a tender from Aena for ground handling services at Barcelona El-Prat, Palma de Mallorca, Malaga-Costa del Sol, Alicante, Gran Canaria, Tenerife North and Tenerife South airports in September 2023, also committed to fresh negotiations on employment.
They said the move was necessary ‘given the precarious situation of staffing levels at different airports, where part-time contracts prevail despite a real need for full-time hiring’.
The news will be warmly welcomed by the millions of passengers heading for Spain’s airports this week, although the call-off does not spell an end to expected disruption.
That’s because the climbdown does not impact ongoing strike action by staff at Groundforce, who have downed tools indefinitely in a bitter dispute over pay.
More than 2,500 workers belonging to the company will walkout on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays every week until an agreement is reached during the select hours of 5am to 7am, 11am to 5pm and 10pm to midnight.
Passengers are therefore warned to expect longer queues at check-in, delays to baggage loading and unloading, plus slower boarding – all of which increase the risk of frustrating knock-on delays.
Experts have urged travellers to fly with hand luggage only if possible, as baggage carousels are expected to bear the brunt of walkouts.
Crucially for expats and tourists, consumer rights advocates warn that passengers will not be entitled to standard European Union financial compensation for delayed or cancelled flights.
Because the strikes are being carried out by airport ground staff rather than the airlines themselves, the disruption is legally classed as an ‘extraordinary circumstance’.
The affected airports for Groundforce strikes include Madrid-Barajas, Barcelona El-Prat, Palma de Mallorca, Alicante, Malaga-Costa del Sol, Gran Canaria, Valencia, Ibiza, Bilbao, Lanzarote, Fuerteventura and Zaragoza.
Staff have been ordered to maintain a minimum service by law, but travellers remain advised to check their flight status before heading to the terminal.
Click here to read more Spain News from The Olive Press.
