The handling war unleashed after the resolution of the Aena tender for ground assistance does not subside. If last week it was the airport manager who called attention to Iberia for, in his opinion, “hindering” the process of awarding new licenses, now it is the unions that are confronting the airline. UGT and CC.OO. They have called eight days of strike in Iberia in the middle of Christmas – on December 29, 30 and 31 and January 1, 4, 5, 6 and 7 – to demand that the company do ‘autohandling’. That is, it chooses to provide ground assistance service to IAG group airlines at airports where it has not obtained a license. In this way, the unions defend, it would prevent the maximum number of workers from being subrogated to the new companies that win the contest.
The workers regret that, after numerous meetings with Iberia and IAG, the company still does not accept the autohandling proposal. The airline, for its part, rules out carrying out this service because it does not consider it profitable. “It would mean serious damage to the competitiveness of the company and all IAG airlines, with its consequent economic impact, and with the insurmountable condemnation of this business in the medium term,” they insist. “Iberia has explained during this dialogue process to the majority unions why self-handling and the consequent partial subrogation is not a viable solution, since it would mean that people with greater seniority and, therefore, those with higher salaries would remain in the Group. “, they add.
The company has also condemned the strike call and has demanded that the unions call it off. According to Iberia, the last collective agreement signed in the sector would guarantee that potential surrogate workers maintain their working conditions in the new successful companies.
The IAG airline lost numerous handling licenses and the important business associated with them, including those of El Prat, Palma de Mallorca, Malaga and five other large airports (only Barajas retains among those with the highest passenger traffic), which led to questioning the AENA award process. This led him to take the contest to the Central Administrative Court of Contractual Resources (TACR), which rejected the appeal. The result of the contest has caused discomfort and concern among the 7,000 Iberia Airport Services workers, who fear a deterioration in working conditions despite the fact that the law dictates that subrogation must respect them. Groundfource, Aviapartner, Menzies and Swissport are the main successful bidders.
