Iberia floor staff in El Prat: “We are very abandoned” | Economy | EUROtoday

In the chats of the employees of the dealing with of Iberia—check-in and boarding, and dealing on runways with suitcases—confusion and discomfort have reigned for nearly three months. On September 26, Iberia misplaced the licenses to supply this service in Barcelona-El Prat and in seven different giant airports (not in Madrid-Barajas), and since then the staff have been dwelling on a curler coaster. They know that their jobs are assured by the sector settlement, which obliges the businesses to which Aena awards the licenses to subrogate the workforce. But additionally they know that the Iberia settlement is the perfect, they usually have little question that working circumstances, sooner or later, will worsen. The unions have gone from forming a typical entrance with Iberia to reject the tender made by the general public airport operator to calling an eight-day strike in the midst of the Christmas marketing campaign, which the corporate has described as “irresponsible.” Despite the stress, all events are assured that an settlement might be reached, whereas the employees proceed to build up suspicions and anger: “We are completely abandoned,” says considered one of them.

“We workers are burned out. For the company, for the unions, and for the politicians, both from the Government and the Generalitat,” says this member of the El Prat floor employees, who prefers to stay nameless. Like many, he believes that Iberia is doing properly for having misplaced the licenses, and affirms that his goal is to get out of the airline enterprise. dealing with. “The last three years of Iberia here, but also in other places, have been a disaster, the staff has burned out, I have colleagues who are devastated by their backs, injuries, stress, especially in recent summers,” he says, in a criticism that extends to the bulk unions. He accuses them of not having been as much as the duty, of getting known as the strike too late and of enjoying into the corporate’s fingers: “Now it is of no use.” Another employee, who has been out for a number of months as a result of a knee damage, believes that he’s on a tightrope: “My situation is that of the disabled, we are afraid that the new company will not want to surrogate us.”

Barcelona is the airport that might be most affected by the lack of Iberia licenses, as a result of it’s the one with probably the most staff who in precept should be subrogated. In complete, Iberia Airport Services—the enterprise of dealing with of the airline—has 8,000 staff, of which 4,300 could also be affected by subrogation, and of them 1,990 work in El Prat. The different main airports the place it has misplaced its license (which is awarded each seven years) are Palma de Mallorca, Málaga, Alicante, Gran Canaria, Tenerife South, Ibiza and Bilbao.

Time has taken its toll and occasions haven’t helped to take care of optimism: the corporate and the unions tried to paralyze the award, however the Central Administrative Court of Contractual Resources (TACRC) rejected Iberia’s enchantment, and now the way in which that opens is that of administrative litigation, which might take years to resolve the difficulty. Thus, all through subsequent yr the contracts should be signed with the brand new profitable bidders. In El Prat they are going to be Aviapartner, Groundforce (from the Globalia group) and Menzies.

To keep away from a degradation of working circumstances with subrogation, the unions requested that Iberia assume, within the airports the place it has misplaced licenses, the autohandling. That is, it gives this service to the airways of the IAG group, to which Iberia itself belongs, but additionally British Airways, Level, Vueling, Air Lingus and Air Nostrum. But the airline has already stated that this assumption, “as stated”, shouldn’t be attainable. “Make a autohandling at cost price it is not sustainable,” emphasizes an Iberia spokesperson, who points out that in the negotiations with the unions they may be talking about a “hybrid model.”

The airline recalls that the sector agreement protects employment, salary conditions and social benefits (one of the most important for workers, many of them of foreign origin, is free or discounts on plane tickets), but recognizes that other successful bidder companies have proven “not to be so scrupulous” in their compliance on other occasions. “In any case, no one will go to the streets,” he highlights.

The negotiation on ‘autohandling’

It is in this nuance about how the autohandling where the hopes are to unblock the negotiation, but also where all the suspicions are. The option that is open is the creation of a new company that guarantees the rights of workers who come from Iberia, but perhaps not to new ones. This is what Miguel Ángel Sánchez, general coordinator of the minority union Cesha, who does not support the strike, states. “We are not going to support what is clearly a fraud. Unofficially, we know that there will be no strike and that the agreement will involve making autohandling with a new company that will apply the sector agreement for new hires, although it respects the conditions of old workers,” he says. He sees it as unheard of that Iberia has lost its licenses: “Only the airline, and the large unions, are interested in showing that they have done everything possible.”

CC OO and UGT recall that the strike has not yet been officially called, but that a five-day negotiation period was opened prior to taking that step. Jorge Gómez, coordinator of the CC OO Air Sector in Catalonia, admits that the situation is “complicated” and that a strike in the middle of Christmas can be very poorly viewed by passengers. “But those who are not to blame for anything are the workers,” he remembers. Gómez explains that the objective is to “find a mechanism to guarantee that the rights achieved in the Iberia agreement, which has been negotiated up to 22 times, are maintained.” This mechanism is the autohandlingalthough he recognizes that it will surely not be as they claimed from the beginning: “There are real options, but negotiating means moving.”

The president of the Iberia works council in El Prat, José Antonio Ramírez, from UGT, charges against Aena for allowing companies to enter the competition with cheap offers that they then assume by reducing personnel costs. An Aena spokesperson has declined to comment on the matter. “In the previous tender, these companies already had other airports and stopped paying bonuses that had always been guaranteed: they save about 300 euros per month,” explains Ramírez. “They also don’t pay well for part-time work and they eliminate free tickets,” he adds. This conflict, continues the unionist, can be avoided with the autohandling, about which they are negotiating. “We take care of the passenger and the aircraft: we load the plane, we open, unload, we deliver the flight plans, we manage the issue of reduced mobility, we load the suitcases… Non-stop, shifts of up to nine days in a row,” he lists.

Workers earn between 25,000 and 40,000 euros gross per year. “Two or three people eat seven or eight airplanes a day, arriving and departing, at least. 100 suitcases per plane. When you’re young you hold on, but then you get tired, and there are injuries,” describes Ramírez, who details that the percentage of people out is usually above 12%, and up to 20% at times. “Subrogated companies take a dim view of these situations. The easiest thing for them is to have expensive and injured workers left over,” he warns.

Follow all the information Economy y Business in Facebook y Xor in our newsletter semanal

_