Fighting for a salary increase to which they believe they are entitled, workers at Portway, a company owned by ANA – Aeroportos de Portugal, went on strike that will last until January 1, 2025. For now, the impact of the strike at airports is being limited.
The unions claim that the pre-determined objective was met, which should lead to an additional increase of 1% in 2024, which would join the 4% that were decided at the beginning of the year, but the ANA says that this did not happen, i.e. , this target was not achieved.
Paulo Duarte, leader of the Handling, Aviation and Airport Workers Union (Sitava), told the Express, that the strike is having a “reasonable response”, but is not causing major embarrassment, just flight delays.
It is a strike without any gatherings at the door, and which did not have a large mobilization on the part of the unions. Paulo Duarte explains that if the strike does not have the desired effect, the unions will discuss
The strike was called by Sitava, the Democratic Union of Airport and Aviation Workers (Sindav), the Union of Airport Handling Technicians (STHAA) and the Union of Merchant Marine, Travel Agencies, Freight Forwarding and Fisheries Workers (Simamevip) and takes place at peak flight times during the winter period, Christmas and New Year. It occurs simultaneously with a strike also in SPdH/Menzies travel assistance logistics, which ends on Thursday, December 26th and which has been having a moderate impact.
Representing a mass and demanding job due to the schedules and the hardness of the operation on the apron, the recruitment of logistics assistance workers at airports has been more difficult post-pandemic.
The strike covers all overtime, starting at 00:00 on December 24, 2024 and until midnight on January 1, 2025. There is also a 24-hour strike notice, starting at 00:00 hours of the day December 24, 2024 until 24:00 on the same day and from 00:00 on December 31st until 24:00 on the last day of the year.
The concessionaire urges passengers to confirm the status of their flights with the airlines and on the ANA website before heading to the airports, to see if everything is normal. Portway mainly provides travel assistance to low-cost airlines.
The strike will also cover work on public holidays that are normal working days, from December 24th until January 2nd, 2025.
The unions that called for the strike, cited by Lusa, accuse the company of “dishonesty and bad faith”.
A disagreement of 60 thousand euros
At issue, according to the unions, is the payment of retroactive payments to workers in an amount of around 60 thousand euros.
After a meeting at the Ministry of Labor last week, Portway, Lusa reported, assured that it “scrupulously applied the agreement signed with the union structures representing workers”, having proceeded “to a 4% increase in salary tables”.
The company acknowledged that “the possibility of an additional increase of 1% remained open, conditional on reaching an operational target of 60 thousand assisted flights, on October 31st, set as being achievable depending on history and prospects, and would be guarantee that Portway would have the financial conditions to increase the tables by another 1%”. However, it indicated, “unfortunately, this objective was not achieved and, as such, it was not possible for the company to achieve this additional increase.”
Portway also said that “the metric used to evaluate achievement of the target is unequivocal and has never changed”, highlighting that “the number of flights has always served as the basis for all negotiations based on operational criteria”.
The unions, on the other hand, have a different reading of the process, pointing out that in November 2024 the company carried out, “once again, a subversion, saying something absolutely outrageous, ridiculous and absurd, as the courts will certainly be responsible for demonstrating”, wanting to convince the workers that “flights and rotations are the same thing.”
The structures recalled that Portway proposed a 1% adjustment to the table in January 2025 and a balance bonus worth R$100 for all workers.
The unions said they accepted the principle, “but never the value of 100 euros”, having proposed 180 euros for everyone.
“Portway went up to 120 euros, with these unions proposing a fixed value of 150 euros”, they said, highlighting that the agreement “which would have called off the strike for the modest sum of 60 thousand euros” ended up being unfeasible.
In the coming days, the strike will continue at another handling company that operates at national airports, Menzies (formerly Groundforce) with ANA – Aeroportos de Portugal warning of possible disruptions, due to the two strikes, in a note on its website ‘.
Source: expresso.pt
