Spanish unions call airport strikes over busy holiday season

By Alyssa McMurtry

OVIEDO, Spain (AA) - Spain’s two largest unions on Wednesday called airport strikes for late December and early January, threatening to disrupt thousands of flights over the busy holiday season.

The strike action from baggage handlers for the major airline Iberia is set to take place over eight days: From Dec. 29 to Jan. 1 and then from Jan. 4 to 7.

In a statement, Iberia slammed the strikes as “irresponsible,” saying they would cause “irreparable damage to the right to holidays and the reunification of friends and families on such important dates.”

In Spain, the Christmas season lasts until Jan. 6, when locals celebrate Three Kings Day and exchange gifts.

Unions and workers, on the other hand, feel that the strike is justified because Iberia refuses to create a “self-handling” operation in airports where a public tender was lost.

Instead, the airline plans to outsource baggage handling, which workers believe could negatively impact their working conditions. In total, almost half of the 7,000 staff employed at the Iberia Airport Services subsidiary would be affected.

Iberia, for its part, argues that “self-handling” baggage would cause “serious harm” to the company’s competitiveness, as well as that of all International Airlines Group (IAG) airlines. IAG is the Anglo-Spanish parent company of Iberia, British Airways, Vueling, Aer Lingus and Level airlines.

Iberia is calling for the unions to call off the strike “immediately.”