Industrial action by ground staff at numerous Spanish airports has now entered its second week of walkouts, with delays and baggage chaos which complicated Easter travel set to continue.
Strike action by Spanish airport staff has continued into a second week, with walkouts complicating return travel following the Easter weekend.
The industrial action was called by union representatives of Groundforce employees, staff who manage ticket sales, check-in and baggage collection, customer service and information desks at Spanish bases.
This follows Spanish trade union UGT calling off planned strikes from Thursday April 2nd to Monday April 6th affecting ground handling services provided by Menzies at seven Spanish airports.
READ ALSO: Strikes at seven airports in Spain called off but other stoppages remain
However, despite the deal reached with Menzies, partial strikes are still in place for workers at Groundforce, the other company staging strikes.
The action involves a total of 5,578 employees at airports in Barcelona, Madrid, Alicante, Valencia, Palma de Mallorca, Ibiza, Málaga, Las Palmas, Tenerife, Lanzarote, Fuerteventura and Bilbao.
Walkouts will continue indefinitely on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays until a deal is reached. The action is organised in three time slots: from 5:00 am to 7:00 am, from 11:00 am to 5:00 pm and from 10:00 pm to midnight.
The workers are calling on the company to implement pay rises agreed via collective bargaining.
Groundforce provides services to specific airlines depending on the airport, however, so the strike is not affecting all travel from Spanish bases.
The first day of walkouts were on Monday March 30th. Some airports have been more affected than others so far.
At Barcelona’s El Prat, for example, Groundforce staff mainly work for Lufthansa, Etihad Airways and Qatar Airways.
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According to the UGT sources over 2,000 suitcases were stranded in Barcelona, in addition to luggage from four flights that had not been unloaded.
Serious delays were reported at Gran Canaria and at Madrid-Barajas the action caused “mountains of luggage” on the tarmac, huge queues, flight delays and six planes took off without luggage.
Around 30 flights were also delayed at Palma de Mallorca’s airport.
Aena, Spain’s airport operator, recommends contacting your airline to find out the status of affected flights.
Airport authorities also advise that you factor in extra time for connecting flights and if possible travel with only hand luggage rather than checked-in bags, in order to avoid baggage delays.
Despite the strikes, there were still more than 70,505 flights to and from Spain between March 27th and April 6th.
