Passengers flying to Spain with Ryanair over the next few months may face disruptions as ground handling employees go on strike for weeks. The strike started on Friday, February 15, and will last until December, going down every Wednesday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday until the finish of the yr. Strike motion will be executed in time slots, firstly between 5am and 9am, then 12pm to 3pm and 9pm to 11.59pm.
This makes the August Bank Holiday among the dates affected, which is when many Brits might head overseas for a last bit of household enjoyable in the solar before kids return to college. The strike entails more than 3,000 staff at Azul Handling, which is half of the Ryanair group. It comes after a resolution by the General Union of Workers (UGT). Azul Handling supplies full baggage handling providers to the Ryanair group, which consists of other airways like Lauda Europe, Malta Air and Buzz, which operate out of several Spanish airports.
Spain’s airport group, Aena, has requested passengers to contact their airline to examine the standing of their flights as they warn of disruptions. The Spanish airports affected are:
- Alicante
- Barcelona
- Girona
- Ibiza
- Lanzarote
- Madrid
- Málaga
- Palma de Mallorca
- Santiago de Compostela
- Sevilla
- Tenerife South
- Valencia
A Ryanair press officer instructed the Daily Express: “We continue to operate a full schedule to/from Spain, and do not expect any disruption to our operations as a result of this third-party industrial action.”
Baggage handlers are hanging for a quantity of causes, including what they call “the abuse of overtime”. The union is calling for assured hours for part-time employees, an finish to the stress to take on further hours, honest remedy over work-life stability and medical go away, and compliance with sector agreements on pay and allowances.
José Manuel Pérez Grande, federal secretary of the FeSMC-UGT Air Union, accused Azul Handling of sustaining “a strategy of precariousness and pressure on the workforce that violates basic labour rights and systematically ignores union demands”.
An announcement shared by Ryanair reads: “Due to Spain’s minimum service legislation during peak summer months, we do not expect any disruption to our operation as a result of these strikes (by the UGT union who represent less than 20% of Azul staff) in our third-party handler in Spain.”
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