The first mediation meeting organised by the Catalan Department of Work this Monday between ground crew and management of the Iberia airline at Barcelona-El Prat airport has ended without agreement between the parties and, as such, the partial stops on the 21st, 22nd, 23rd and 24th December are to go ahead.
The company's works council described the meeting as "completely unproductive" due to the "lack of interest from Iberia's management to reach an agreement". According to the union UGT, Iberia's management argued for statewide negotiation to find a solution for its whole staff and not just its workers at El Prat airport. Nor did the two parties, management and workers, reach an agreement relating to minimal services and so it now falls on the Department of Work to dictate them.
The strike is planned to involve partial stops between 5am and 9am, between 12pm and 7pm and between 8pm and 12am on the 21st, 22nd, 23rd and 24th December at the airport serving the Catalan capital.
The strike action by Iberia's ground crew will not only affect the airline itself and its sister companies Vueling and British Airways, but also a large proportion of the companies that use the airport and contract services from Iberia.
Excessive workload
The workers calling for the strike want a business plan for the airport including the hiring of new staff to solve the excessive workload borne by the majority of the workers.
The overload denounced by the workers has led in recent months to them accumulating some 7,000 pending rest hours which they cannot claim for lack of staff.
The works council of the Barcelona airport decided by majority on 4th December to call for partial stoppages in four hours blocks during the four days of the strike.
The committee says that Iberia's workers this year had one of the summers of "most tension" due to the growth of Vueling, without an ensuing growth in staff.