SECURITY workers at Barcelona airport will restart their strike from next Friday (September 8) and those in Madrid will follow suit a fortnight later.
In the case of Barcelona, staff working for the franchise, Eulen, which operates the hand-luggage scanners at the entrance to departures, called off their industrial action on the day of the city's devastating terrorist attack which has left 15 dead, plus a 16th in Cambrils (Tarragona province) later that night.
But after a three-week break from their strike, they will resume in order to put pressure on the ministry of public works to heed their demands for a pay increase of €250 a month over 15 monthly pay cheques per year.
In Madrid, security is operated by the franchise Prosegur and falls under the Association of Airport Security Guards (AVA), set up in January in response to 'general dissatisfaction among employees'.
AVA has taken over from the previous unions serving Prosegur staff – the UGT and ATES – after an 'unsatisfactory' three-month agreement was made between these and the company on July 15 to avert a strike at Adolfo Suárez-Barajas airport.
The new union says security staff are overstretched and feel safety is compromised, but their main concern is their wages and job titles.
They want to be classed as 'qualified and specialist workers' and for each one of the 600-plus employees to get a €200-a-month pay rise to reflect this.
Also, they want better regulation of overtime, and salary increases for this and for bank holiday, Sunday and night shifts, together with a 'parking allowance' and an additional seven days off a year with pay for 'personal issues', such as renewing driving licences, visiting the town hall, or family matters.
Their strikes will take place on September 21 and 22.
A series of general strikes affecting all services at 25 airports in Spain were announced earlier this month, running from September to December inclusive, and as yet no further information has been received as to whether or not these will go ahead.
In the meantime, anyone planning to travel from a Spanish airport should leave plenty of extra time, and anyone arriving should be aware that passport control queues and baggage reclaim may take longer than usual.
