Photograph credit score: Pavel Larsson/Shutterstock
Unions UGT and CGT have been calling for a sequence of strikes amongst floor dealing with workers working at Azur Dealing with, a Ryanair dealing with subsidiary, at Madrid Varajas Airport since August fifteenth. Industrial measures are anticipated to incorporate 22 strike days till the rest of 2025.
The primary wave of stops will happen on August fifteenth, sixteenth, seventeenth and seventeenth, coinciding with the height summer season vacation season. Further strikes are scheduled for the weekend of August 23-24 and August 30-31, with extra strikes coming throughout the main vacation durations of September 6-7-7-7-14, October 11-12 and November and December. The ultimate strike this 12 months is deliberate for December thirty first and is anticipated to have an effect on New 12 months’s journeys.
Union representatives say the lawsuit is a response to what’s referred to as a “everlasting violation of labour rights” within the dealing with of Azur. Among the many predominant complaints is disciplinary sanctions of as much as 36 days with out work. The union additionally advocates widespread use of “Horas Complementarias” with out the consent of employees, criticizing fraudulent part-time contracts that undermine job stability and seniority rights. In response to UGT and CGT, these practices create structural work instability and forestall staff from accessing full-time positions.
One other main grievance is that the corporate allegedly interfered with its union actions. Each unions argue that Azul’s dealing with of the corporate ignores withholding data, the labor committee’s committee block, and legally binding rulings, and engages in techniques resembling discrimination towards part-time wage employees.
Whereas UGT and CGT united in quest of a strike, the nation’s third main union, CCOO, selected to not take part within the motion. Earlier this 12 months, CCOO signed the corporate’s first collective bargaining settlement in April. This can be a transfer that claimed that UGT and CGT have been unable to handle the core problems with risky contracts and extreme working hours.
Below Spanish labor legislation, the Ministry of Transport will probably be required to set minimal service ranges to make sure important airport operations throughout the strike. Ryanair is Europe’s largest low-cost service, and Barajas is certainly one of Spain’s predominant operational hubs. A strike can have an effect on the dealing with of bags for flights departing from Madrid, the length of the plane, and total punctuality. Though Azul’s dealing with has not but issued an official assertion, trade observers warn that long-term labor disputes in floor providers typically have an effect on airline operations, notably throughout peak journey months. The announcement provides to the rising labor tensions throughout the European aviation sector. On this aviation sector, unions are searching for higher working situations amid growing stress on passenger numbers and airport workers.