Iberia ground staff announce future strikes

Iberia’s ground staff has called for 8 days of strikes at airports all throughout Spain taking place every Monday between September 30 and November 18.

These strikes may affect other companies that use Iberia's services, especially Vueling and British Airways. 

The announcement was made Monday morning following unsuccessful talks on the workers’ collective bargaining agreement, with UGT union representatives claiming that the company has left them with "no other option” as it has not successfully addressed their complaints about the “precarious” working conditions at airports.

UGT has called on other unions to join the strike, highlighting the fact that they had been “responsible” enough to agree to decrease their salaries during negotiations over the previous collective bargaining agreement, but that this time the company could no longer claim to not be making enough in profits to improve their conditions.

At Barcelona’s El Prat airport, Iberia ground staff has also announced they will strike from September 21 to 24.

This is not the first time airport staff go on strike in Barcelona, as similar collective action was carried out in August. These stoppages, however, have not affected El Prat’s passenger statistics, nor have its significant delays: the tally for this year so far is 35 million passengers, a 5.2% increase on last year.