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ARCHIVED - More flight chaos ahead as Spanish airline Vueling votes to strike
The airline has planned work stoppages on key holiday days in Spain
Barcelona’s main airline, Vueling, is anticipating three months of strikes as its cabin crew argue over pay and working conditions. The union representing the majority of the carrier’s workers in Spain, Stavla, has called for work stoppages every Friday, Sunday and Monday between November 1 and January 31 next year, in addition to November 1, 6 and 8, December 24 and 31 and January 5, 2023.
These dates are aimed at having the biggest impact on travel plans, scheduled as they are at key times during the Christmas holidays and other national celebrations.
According to the union, the industrial action is as a result of the “the absence of significant progress in the negotiation of the collective agreement and the lack of real intention shown by Vueling to solve the salary demands of the group of cabin crew."
The flights attendants, who endured pay cuts at the height of the coronavirus pandemic, want their wages increased by 13.4% this year in line with “the current standard of living.”
Stavla has this week threatened to extend the strike action “indefinitely” if negotiations continue to land at a stale mate.
Although Vueling reached an agreement with the CCOO union back in August to increase salaries by 6.5%, Stavla refused to sign. This is becoming the trend in Spain, as several unions represent different percentages of cabin crews and can rarely reach common ground among its members. Most recently, two of the smaller unions announced they were taking Ryanair to court on behalf of their cabin crew.
The carrier maintains that now "is not the time to divide ourselves but to join our efforts to build the future of Vueling together," claiming that the union is demanding salary increases of 33% until 2025.
Vueling itself already claims to be too tightly stretched to consider further raises; the airline amassed losses of 1,000 million euros during the pandemic and has added 260 million in debt.
Image: Archive
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