The unions CCOO, UGT, and USO have called an indefinite strike at Groundforce, Air Europa's ground handling services company, which affects more than 3,000 workers distributed across a dozen Spanish airports. The protest, motivated by salary discrepancies, will take place through daily partial stoppages in the middle of Holy Week, one of the periods of greatest air activity of the year.
Call at the main airports
The workers called to join the strike operate in key airports such as Madrid, Barcelona, Palma de Mallorca, Málaga, Alicante, Valencia, Bilbao and several tourist enclaves of the Canary Islands and the Balearic Islands.
Initially scheduled to start days earlier, the mobilization will finally begin on Monday, coinciding with the increase in holiday travel.
Conflict over the compliance of the agreement
From CCOO they explain that the call responds to the non-compliance with salary commitments included in the collective agreement, as well as to the interpretation that the company would be making of some of its articles.
According to them, this situation is leading to a loss of purchasing power for the staff, by not correctly applying the salary update linked to the accumulated inflation since 2022.
Accusations of cuts and internal inequality
The unions maintain that Groundforce has applied restrictive criteria in the salary review, especially affecting certain professional groups.
In their opinion, this practice not only violates what was agreed, but also generates imbalances within the staff, by establishing differences that they consider unjustified among workers.
Stoppages in three time slots
The strike will materialize in partial stoppages distributed in three segments throughout the day:
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In the early morning, between 5:00 and 7:00
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During central hours, from 11:00 to 17:00
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And at night, from 22:00 to 00:00
These slots directly affect key moments of airport operations, which could generate delays or incidents in flights.
Open negotiation in a critical moment
Despite the call, the unions assure that they keep open the path of dialogue and that their objective continues to be to reach an agreement with the company.
Nevertheless, they warn that they will not accept decisions that transfer to the workers the impact of inflation or of business management, in a particularly sensitive context for the tourism sector.
Impact in the midst of Holy Week
The strike arrives at one of the moments of greatest travel volume of the year, which increases its potential impact on airports and passengers.
The development of the conflict in the coming days will be key to determine if significant impacts occur on air operations during these dates.