Airport Strikes Off

 

Following a meeting between the CCOO, USO and UGT Unions and representatives of the Spanish Airports Authorities, which ended earlier this evening, a resolution has been found which has resulted in the planned strikes being called off.

The two 24-Hour strike dates had originally been planned for the 18th and 26th of August, and to coincide with the visit of Pope Benedict XVI to the Spanish capital to attend the Catholic Church's World Youth day.

The unions were protesting over the redundancy forced upon four employees of a baggage handling contractor working at Barcelona airport. Three of the Employees were later reinstated, but a fourth staff member had been left without work. As a result 60'000 Baggage handling employees working accross all of Spain's airports had threatened strike action at what would have been the busiest time of the year.

Despite an agreement being found which brings the threat of airport disruption to an end, an earlier threat of strike action by Madrid's Metro workers, who are protesting against salary and working conditions, remains in place. The capital is expecting to welcome over 1 million visitors to World Youth day, and this looks likely to bring a new challenge for the authorities to overcome.