MADRID, 20 Dic. (EUROPA PRESS) –
UGT and CCOO have decided to postpone the call for a strike by Iberia’s handling workers, announced for eight days of the Christmas period, following the Government’s offer to mediate the conflict.
This Wednesday, both unions held a series of conversations with the Ministry of Transport and Sustainable Mobility to try to find a solution to the conflict, generated after Iberia lost the handling license at eight airports in the last Aena tender.
In a statement, the unions highlight that postponing the strike is “an act of responsibility”, showing their willingness to “reach the long-awaited agreement” thanks to the new negotiation framework with the intervention of the Government. The meetings will begin this Thursday.
Likewise, the unions have expressed their desire that this new path, “opened thanks to the pressures of UGT and CCOO”, will allow them to “reach a beneficial result for Iberia workers.”
The unions have stated that this Government mediation derives from pressure from these same unions, which had decided to call the strike after the “unsuccessful meetings” held with Iberia. The strike was announced for the days between December 29 and January 1 and between January 4 and 7.
As detailed by the unions, within the framework of its negotiations with Iberia, the company proposed the creation of a company led by a winning bidder of the tenders, with a majority stake of 80%, together with a minority company that belonged to IAG, which would be Yellow Handling.
However, the unions considered that this “invention” was “illegal” for not complying with the royal decree that corresponds to this issue.
CCOO and UGT estimate that this would mean a segregation of the business and, in turn, non-compliance with the agreements signed in the latest agreements.
For this reason, they asked Iberia to adopt autohandling at these airports, but the company estimates that autohandling and partial subrogation is not a viable solution, since older people and, therefore, with greater mobility would remain in the group. salary.
This means that the operators awarded the tender would have the personnel with the lowest salary costs, so they could offer much more competitive prices than those that can be achieved through ‘autohandling’, creating a competitiveness gap.
In addition, the unions proposed the negotiation of an employment regulation file (ERE) within the company that would allow the company to reduce costs and face the business “with better prospects.” All of this, as they explain, to guarantee compliance with the working conditions agreed in the XXII collective agreement of the sector.
FEAR OF A DECREASE IN LABOR RIGHTS
Iberia lost the ground services operator license at eight large Aena airports in the airport manager competition, which closed on September 26.
This was a hard blow for the company, which appealed the bankruptcy and maintains legal proceedings open to try to recover part of the business.
After the entry of new operators, the workers would be subrogated to these new successful companies. The unions began to fear that these actors could fail to comply with what was agreed in the sector’s collective agreement, causing a worsening of the working conditions of these workers.
Thus, they began to demand that Iberia make a decision that protected its current workers and urged it to communicate its decision to employees as soon as possible.
