Get all your news in one place.
100’s of premium titles.
One app.
Start reading
Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
Travel
Milo Boyd

Spain holidays warning for Brits as 10,000 airport workers set to strike over Christmas

Airport workers in Spain could strike over Christmas and through to Easter in a fight to have their pay increased.

The airport authority AENA revealed that there will be walk-outs on December 22, 23, 30 and 31, with January 6 and 8 also affected by the industrial action.

More than 10,000 CCOO union members including operating staff, operations technicians, firefighters and admin workers at AENA airports could walk out.

The authority controls the biggest airports in the country, including Gran Canaria, Seville, Ibiza, Barcelona El Prat and two Madrid travel hubs.

The union has said that the call for a strike "could plunge Spanish airports into chaos in the middle of the Christmas holidays."

The strikes could cause "chaos" at Spanish airports, the union said (Getty Images)

The CCOO says it will register the call for strikes with the Ministry of Labour this week, meaning the days of industrial action could be confirmed later this week.

The union's leaders have said that they've spent months requesting that AENA restores productivity pay, which they claim wasn't paid during parts of the pandemic.

Francisco José Casado Moreno, general secretary of CCOO at AENA, says that air traffic has returned to 2019 levels and even higher in some Spanish airports.

He said that payment of dividends to private shareholders in the AENA group has been authorised, Euro Weekly News reported.

Spanish airport workers are not the only ones going on strike this Christmas.

Border Force employees represented by the PCS Union in the UK are due to walk out over a pay dispute with the Home Office.

Josep Tarradellas Barcelona-El Prat Airport would be affected by strikes (AFP via Getty Images)

The industrial action will take place on December 23, 24, 25 and 26, as well as 28, 29, 30 and 31 at Birmingham, Cardiff, Glasgow, Gatwick, Heathrow and Manchester airports, as well as Newhaven port.

The PCS union is seeking a 10% pay rise, and a block on job cuts and reductions on pensions.

The union is one of the biggest in Whitehall with 100,000 members across 214 government departments.

Unite members employed by Menzies will take part in strike action from 4am on Friday December 16 for 72 hours, affecting baggage handling at Heathrow Airport.

As in the UK, workers in Spain are seeing the power of their pay packets be reduced by high levels of inflation, which currently sits around 7%.

AENA has been contacted for comment.

Sign up to read this article
Read news from 100’s of titles, curated specifically for you.
Already a member? Sign in here
Related Stories
Top stories on inkl right now
Our Picks
Fourteen days free
Download the app
One app. One membership.
100+ trusted global sources.