There is a threat of an air traffic strike in Spain over the holidays. The UGT and CCOO unions called on the ground staff of the Iberia airline to strike for a total of eight days over the New Year and the Epiphany on January 6th, which is particularly important in Spain. The state TV broadcaster RTVE and other media reported this unanimously. The strike was triggered by fears that working conditions could deteriorate.
The background is that Iberia Airport Services, which is responsible for handling aircraft, lost almost all of its contracts with important Spanish airports except Madrid-Barajas to competitors in a tender in September. This means that in the future it will no longer be responsible for handling aircraft from all airlines landing and taking off there. Around 7,000 employees feared that they would have to work under worse conditions for new licensees.
RTVE reported that the unions wanted to use the strike to ensure that Iberia would at least take over the handling of all aircraft from the airlines belonging to the parent company IAG – Iberia, British Airways, Level, Vueling, Aer Lingus and Air Nostrum – at the affected Spanish airports. Iberia rejected this for cost reasons. December 29th, 30th and 31st as well as January 1st, 4th, 5th, 6th and 7th were named as strike days.
