Off the wire
• Progress made in South China Sea code of conduct consultations: spokesperson  • 1st LD: Two children killed in clashes in Egypt's Sinai  • NATO chief sees 2014 "black year"for European security  • Feature: Extreme poverty forces Afghan woman to sell her newborn baby  • Euro area unemployment rate hit 11.4 pct in Dec. 2014  • Honda slashes annual profit forecast on slumping sales, recall costs  • Paths to Australian Open women's final  • Euro area annual inflation down to minus 0.6 pct in January  • Podemos party plans huge rally in Spanish capital Madrid  • More than 10 mln Chinese overcome poverty in 2014  
You are here: 　 Home

Spanish airport workers announce series of strikes in coming months

Xinhua, January 30, 2015 Adjust font size:

Workers at Spanish airports have called 27 one-day strikes from Feb. 11 and Aug. 31 in protest of the Spanish government's plans to sell shares in the Spanish airport operator AENA.

The series of strikes have been called by the labor unions Comisiones Obreras (CCOO) and Union Sindical Obrera (USO), which represent around 70 percent of the 9,000 people employed at the 46 airports controlled by AENA.

Seven of the strikes will be held in July and five in August to coincide with key dates during the high-peak summer holiday season. Travel during the Easter holiday period and other public holidays will also be affected.

The unions said the strikes were organized because they "completely reject the entry of private capital into AENA," after the Spanish government of Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy said last week it would float 28 percent of the company shares on the stock market on Feb. 11, with a further 2 percent of shares granted to three private investors.

AENA is the world's largest airport operator in terms of passenger numbers with almost 200 million travelers passing though their 61 airports during 2014.

The company suffered badly as a result of the recession, but when Spanish Deputy Prime Minister, Soraya Saenz de Santamaria announced the share issue, she explained the company was now ready to be floated due to "a deep transformation," which included reductions in staff and an increase in airport taxes. Endit