The strike at Barcelona-El Prat Airport has no end in sight. The workers of Eulen, the security contractors, have rejected the bonus proposed by the Catalan government and so will go ahead with tomorrow's planned strike. As such, on Friday, there will be partial stops at the airport from 5:30 to 6:30, from 10:30 to 11:30, from 16:30 to 17:30 and from 18:30 to 19:30. There will also be partial stops on Sunday and then, starting Monday, an indefinite 24-hour a day strike.
After a long day of debate, the staff of the company that manages security at the airport has voted for a salary increase of fifteen payments of 250 euros, instead of twelve of 200 as in the proposal. The option suggested by the strike committee didn't win either.
One of the votes in favour of the winning option / Sergi Alcàzar
All day long, Eulen's workers have been going to the Center of Economic Promotion in Prat de Llobregat, near the airport, to discuss and then vote on the proposed salary increases, which was the main point of disagreement among the staff and also the obstacle to an agreement between the committee and Eulen. There have been meetings every hour and the vote was open in different shifts between 11 in the morning and 7 in the evening.
The demands
The mediation proposal has not received the support of the staff, as explained by their spokesperson, Juan Carlos Giménez, who insisted again on some of their other claims, like gender equality. "We want parity in the airport and for there to be an equitable distribution of men and women," he said.
Giménez was especially critical of Eulen and Aena, the public airport operator, for their roles in the negotiations, which today have resulted in the 'no' vote. "It is difficult to sit down to talk when Eulen has refused to move, but we will attempt to continue negotiating," the spokesman said. He also noted that any agreement needs ratifying by Aena to avoid conflicts in future.
The result
The meeting consisted of an information session in which the committee's representatives explained the contents of the proposal from the negotiations with Eulen, Aena and the Catalan government to the workers and then a vote between the four proposed salary increases, which ended in the following result:
- 15 payments of 250 euros: 89 votes
- 15 payments of 200 euros (suggested today by the committee): 82 votes
- 15 payments of 350 euros: 3 votes
- 12 payments of 200 euros (the Catalan government's proposal): 2 votes
In the end, the winning option, with only seven votes more than the second most-popular choice, was not either the one recommended by the committee nor the one proposed by the Catalan government. This last proposal, which offered the smallest salary bonus, received only two votes.