Canary Islands Easter travel alert as Brits flying to Tenerife and Lanzarote face chaos | World | News
Brits preparing to travel to the Canary Islands over the Easter period may face serious travel disruptions as airport ground handling staff join a strike. After negotiations between unions and employers failed, check-in, baggage handling and aircraft support staff are going on strike as of March 27.
Staff from Groundforce and Menzies Aviation will take action that will impact airlines including easyJet, Jet2 and Aer Lingus. Unions accuse employers of “violating wages and working conditions” and are calling on more than 1,500 workers on the islands to go on strike.
Ground force strikes will begin today at airports in Gran Canaria, Fuerteventura and Lanzarote and will take place on Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
Staff will go out three times a day: early in the morning, at noon and late in the evening, meaning they will stop working between 5am and 7am, 11am to 5pm and 10pm to 12pm.
Unions said the company had not properly implemented the wage protection clause and should have paid staff an extra 7.82%, against an actual increase of 4.58%.
Unions said employees had to deal with unpaid wages, payroll errors, poor shift scheduling and unpaid overtime.
This comes amid ongoing negotiations over a potential redundancy plan at Gran Canaria Airport that would reduce full-time contracts to part-time for up to two years.
The move was strongly opposed by unions, who questioned the jurisdiction of this decision as companies continued to rely on temporary staff and overtime.
