All-day strike in Barcelona Airport to begin on August 14

The indefinite strike called by security workers in Barcelona Airport is now official. On Thursday, staff at the Eulen company, which is in charge of security at the airport, officially registered an indefinite 24-hour a day strike to start on August 14 with the Ministry of Business and Knowledge.

Yet, the strike previously agreed by the airport security staff is set to begin on Friday. In July, the Eulen airport staff voted for a partial strike until their demands for an improvement in working conditions were met. Until August 14, the security staff will stop work every Friday, Sunday and Monday, from 5:30–6:30am, 10:30–11:30am, 4:30–5:30pm and 6:30–7:30pm. 

For the partial strike, the Spanish government’s delegation in Catalonia has established a minimum 90% level of services, which the workers say is disgraceful. “They are not allowing us to strike,” said strike committee member, Genoveva Sierra, this week.

The representatives of the Eulen employees decided to intensify the strike from August 14 to protest their working conditions. The workers claim they have an unsustainable workload and feel under such pressure that it is leading to physical and psychological exhaustion.    

According to the strike committee member, Genoveva Sierra, the pressure on the employees has reached a point where the Eulen company has even imposed sanctions on three members of staff over the past few weeks “for breach of the rules”. Moreover, the employees blame the management for failing to comply with the law regarding labor rights. As examples, they point to the number of people working per shift and the balance between female and male workers. “We cannot use the regulations to penalize the company, as they do the workers,” claimed a staff representative.

Besides the partial strike in the first two weekends of August and the full strike from August 14, the security staff also agreed to carry out other kinds of protests to show their dissatisfaction. Sierra stressed that the security staff wants “to show that all they ask for are minimum rights.” While waiting for the demonstrations to be registered, the strike committee is looking into calling protests on central streets in Barcelona, such as Avinguda Diagonal.