The indefinite strike at Airbus begins: salaries, telecommuting, and the points that keep the conflict open

In Spain, a strike in a private company like Airbus cannot be declared illegal or suspended by direct political decision (Government or Parliament). It can only be limited or declared illegal through judicial rulings or, exceptionally, within the framework of constitutional crisis states, always based on the Constitution and the law.

1. Basic constitutional and legal framework

• Article 28.2 of the Constitution: recognizes the right to strike of workers for the defense of their interests, and refers its regulation to a law.
• This regulation remains essentially the Royal Decree-Law 17/1977, on labor relations, complemented by the interpretation of the Constitutional Court and the Workers' Statute.
• The Constitution allows for limits to be established on the exercise of the right to strike, especially in essential community services, and foresees that in states of alarm, exception, and siege, fundamental rights can be restricted under parliamentary and judicial control.

2. Main route: judicial challenge of the strike

The ordinary channel to declare a strike illegal or to suspend it is the social jurisdiction, through a special collective conflict process.

• Who can challenge: normally the affected company, business organizations, or even other unions/workers if they consider the strike violates the law (for example, a purely political strike, abusive, without prior notice, etc.).
• Before which body:
  • If the conflict is beyond the scope of an autonomous community or affects several workplaces in different regions (typical case of large multinationals), the National Court, Social Chamber has jurisdiction.
  • If the scope is regional, the competent body is the corresponding High Court of Justice.
• Grounds to request illegality (in light of RD-Law 17/1977 and constitutional doctrine):
  • Strike called without respecting legal deadlines and prior notices.
  • Strike pursuing illegal purposes (for example, exclusively political without labor link, coercion, etc.).
  • Abusive strike (for example, intermittent or strategic strike that makes activity impossible with disproportionate impact).
  • Violation of minimum services in essential services.
• Precautionary measures: along with the claim, the company or other legitimized parties can request the court for precautionary measures, for example:
  • The provisional suspension of the strike or certain modalities (partial closures, access blockades, etc.).
  • The order to respect certain limits or minimum services.
  The court will assess the appearance of illegality, urgency, and economic or social harm to decide whether to temporarily limit the strike before issuing a ruling.
• Judgment:
  • If it declares the legality of the strike, it may continue under the recognized conditions.
  • If it declares the illegality, the promoters may incur liabilities (including disciplinary and eventually criminal in extreme cases), and the company may react against absences, coercive pickets, etc.

3. Role of the Government: essential services and exceptional states

The Government does not “prohibit” ordinary strikes, but it does have certain instruments that can limit or channel their exercise.

• Essential services: when the activity affects essential community services (energy, critical transport, health, security, etc.), the Government or competent authority may:
  • Set mandatory minimum services through orders or administrative resolutions.
  • If these minimum services are not respected, the Administration may also resort to the contentious-administrative jurisdiction and the social jurisdiction, which may serve as a basis to consider the strike unlawful or limit it de facto.
• States of alarm, exception, and siege (Organic Law 4/1981):
  • Declaration is the competence of the Government, with authorization or control by the Congress of Deputies.
  • In these frameworks, fundamental rights can be restricted or suspended, including the right to strike, through provisions with the rank of organic law and always with parliamentary and judicial control.

4. Role of Parliament

Parliament (Congress and Senate) does not concretely and directly declare a strike in a company illegal. Its functions in this area are:

• Legislate: approve or reform the rules regulating the right to strike (for example, replacing RD-Law 17/1977 with a new more detailed organic law).
• Control the Government in the use of its powers regarding essential services and the declaration of exceptional states.

In summary, for a strike like Airbus's to be declared illegal or suspended, the decisive channel is a challenge before the social jurisdiction, which can adopt precautionary measures and, if applicable, issue a judgment of illegality. The Government can only limit it indirectly (minimum services, exceptional states) and Parliament acts by regulating the legal framework, but not by annulling specific strikes.

The Interconfederal Mediation and Arbitration Service (SIMA) is a parity body created by the most representative business and union organizations at the state level to manage autonomous labor conflict resolution systems. Its competencies are framed within the provisions of the Agreement on Autonomous Conflict Resolution (ASAC) and general labor regulations, focusing on facilitating that the parties resolve their disputes without needing to resort to judicial channels or more intense collective conflicts, such as strikes or lockouts.

1. Management and organization of mediation procedures

One of SIMA's core competencies is organizing and managing mediation procedures in labor conflicts of state or supra-regional scope. This includes:

• Receiving mediation requests submitted by unions, companies, or business associations.
• Checking if the conflict fits within the scope of application of ASAC (labor matter, territorial scope, legitimized subjects, etc.).
• Appointing the mediator or mediators from those listed in its registers, ensuring neutrality and acceptance by the parties.
• Setting, in agreement with the parties, the place, date, and conditions of mediation meetings.
• Providing administrative and logistical support (calls, minutes, documentation) throughout the procedure.

Essentially, SIMA acts as the institutional “infrastructure” that allows mediation to develop with formal guarantees, reasonable deadlines, and a framework of impartiality.

2. Mediation in collective labor conflicts

SIMA is mainly competent in collective labor conflicts that exceed the scope of a single autonomous community or have state-wide reach. Among them:

• Conflicts over interpretation and application of collective agreements or accords of state or supra-regional scope.
• Disagreements arising in the negotiation of new agreements or in the revision of existing ones.
• Conflicts related to general working conditions (wages, working hours, professional classification, etc.) when affecting large groups of workers.
• Conflicts prior to the exercise of the right to strike or within the framework of strike calls of state or broader than regional scope.

In these cases, SIMA's intervention can be mandatory as a procedural requirement before resorting to social jurisdiction or materializing certain strikes, when established by ASAC itself or collective agreements referring to this system.

3. Promotion of agreement and proposal development

In mediation, SIMA does not impose solutions, but:

• Facilitates dialogue between the parties, helping them identify points of disagreement and possible areas of understanding.
• Can formulate proposals for rapprochement or model solutions, which the parties are free to accept or reject.
• Draws up a final record reflecting the agreements reached or, if applicable, the unsuccessful result of the mediation attempt.

When an agreement is reached, SIMA is responsible for giving it the appropriate legal form (for example, as a mediation agreement comparable to a collective agreement in certain effects) and facilitating its registration or publication when appropriate, so that it is enforceable and binding.

4. Labor arbitration and appointment of arbitrators

Besides mediation, SIMA has competence in labor arbitration when the parties agree to submit the conflict to a binding decision by an impartial third party:

• Processes arbitration commitments voluntarily signed by the parties.
• Appoints the arbitrator or arbitration tribunal according to the rules set in ASAC or the parties' agreement.
• Supports the arbitration process and the issuance of the award, which has effectiveness similar to that of a collective agreement or a judgment, depending on the case.

This arbitration function is always voluntary: SIMA only acts if the parties expressly accept to submit to arbitration.

5. Support, promotion, and statistical functions

Alongside direct management of mediations and arbitrations, SIMA develops other complementary competencies:

• Dissemination and promotion of autonomous conflict resolution, encouraging that collective agreements and accords refer to the SIMA-ASAC system.
• Training and specialization of mediators and arbitrators in negotiation, mediation, and labor conflict analysis techniques.
• Preparation of statistics and reports on managed conflicts, agreements reached, and system effectiveness.
• Technical advice to union and business organizations on the use of the system and its possibilities.

Overall, SIMA's competencies position this body as a key piece in collective bargaining and peaceful management of labor conflicts in Spain, offering a specialized, fast, and less confrontational channel than the judicial route to resolve disputes between companies and workers.

In Spanish legislation, there is no specific regime for the indefinite strike: the same general framework of the right to strike applies. What matters is not that it is indefinite, but that it respects the material and formal requirements established mainly by the Royal Decree-Law 17/1977, of March 4, on labor relations, interpreted in light of Article 28.2 of the Constitution and the Workers' Statute.

1. Who can call the strike

According to Royal Decree-Law 17/1977, the declaration of strike always requires an express agreement in each workplace. It can be agreed by:

• Workers' representatives (works council, staff delegates, or union sections), by majority agreement recorded in minutes.
• The affected workers themselves, by secret vote when promoted by a significant part of the workforce, adopting the agreement by simple majority among voters.

In any case, the agreement must refer to a collective labor conflict within the scope of the affected workplace(s).

2. Formal requirements: prior notice and communication

For a strike (including if indefinite) to be legal, these basic requirements must be met:

• Written communication of the strike agreement to the affected employer(s) and the labor authority.
• Minimum prior notice period of 5 calendar days before the strike begins; if it affects companies providing public services, the prior notice must be at least 10 calendar days.
• The communication letter must include:
  • The objectives or demands of the strike.
  • The efforts made to try to resolve the conflict.
  • The start date (in the indefinite strike, without setting an end date).
  • The composition of the strike committee.

If the prior notice, communication, or its minimum content is not respected, the strike may be declared illegal.

3. Strike committee

The regulation recognizes the strike committee as the representative body of the workers in conflict:

• Only workers from the affected workplace can be part of it.
• It cannot exceed twelve people.
• It participates in negotiations with the company and in administrative or judicial procedures related to the conflict.
• It must guarantee the necessary services for the safety of people, property, premises, machinery, and installations, and what is necessary for the subsequent resumption of activity.

The lack of organization of these internal minimum services or their obstruction may be classified as abusive or unlawful behavior.

4. Material requirements and limits

For the indefinite strike to be legal, it must respect certain material limits:

• The strike must pursue labor or professional purposes linked to the interest of the affected workers (working conditions, wages, work organization, etc.).
• Strikes are illegal if:
  • They have exclusively political purposes or unrelated to the professional interest of the affected workers.
  • They are purely solidarity or support strikes that do not directly affect their professional interest.
  • They aim to modify a current collective agreement or an award during its validity period.
  • They are carried out in breach of the requirements of the Royal Decree-Law itself or the conflict resolution rules agreed in collective agreements.
• Certain modalities, such as rotating strikes or work-to-rule strikes, are abusive when used to cause disproportionate harm severely disrupting the production process.
• The strike must be carried out through effective and peaceful cessation of work, without occupying the workplace or coercing those who want to work.

5. Essential services and worker protection

In sectors providing essential services to the community, the government authority may impose minimum services, which workers and the committee must respect. Serious non-compliance with these services may affect the legality of the strike and lead to sanctions or individual dismissals.

When the strike is legal:

• The contract is considered suspended, not terminated; the worker does not receive salary but maintains social security coverage.
• The worker cannot be sanctioned merely for striking, nor replaced by external personnel hired ad hoc.
• The freedom to work of those who do not want to join the strike must be respected.

If these requirements are met, an indefinite strike is considered, in principle, a legitimate exercise of the right to strike, with the same legal protection as a strike of fixed duration.