August

A strike by easyJet crews between the 15th and 17th of this month and a probable strike at Groundforce on 31st and 1st September threaten the busiest month at Portuguese airports: August. In fact, the 7.2 million travelers who arrived in Portugal in August 2023 represent about 28% of the entire year.

Let’s do it with steps. First the easyJet case. Following a strike notice issued by the National Union of Civil Aviation Workers, which represents the company’s crew, for August 15, 16 and 17, the company low cost announced that they would not operate 164 of the 308 scheduled flights for these days. The 308 scheduled flights, a SNPVAC source told Jornal Económico (JE), include around 56 thousand passengers.

SNPVAC has called a three-day strike by cabin crew at easyJet after accusing the company of ignoring several attempts to resolve labor issues, including staff shortages and an increase in the number of ‘ working hours.

The stoppage starts at 00:01 on August 15 and ends at 24:00 on the 17th, for “all flights operated by easyJet, as well as for other services with cabin crew specified”, in a national area.

EasyJet lamented the cancellation of flights due to an “unnecessary strike” by cabin crew. “We regret that, given the unnecessary strike planned by SNPVAC [Sindicato Nacional do Pessoal de Voo da Aviação Civil] and to minimize the impact of disruption on the day of travel for our customers, we have had to cancel some flights that were scheduled to operate during the joint action period”, said the company, in a note sent to Lusa on Friday.

The company also said that customers whose flights have already been canceled have been notified and will be eligible for a refund or a free transfer to a new flight. easyJet also advised customers traveling to and from Portugal during the strike period to check the status of their flights.

In a criticism of easyJet, the union says the airline “cannot accept external factors as the cause of problems at work and stresses that “bad weather does not affect the preparation of passenger schedules of work, disorganization of the operations department, canceling flights due to lack of staff or leaving crew members sleeping on the floor at airports”.

In fact, the company’s decision to cancel half of its flights now gave a very clear signal to the union. “Everything will depend on whether the company wants to sit at the table with us again. But we have already understood, with this advance warning, that the company has refused any kind of negotiation. Because by canceling 50% of flights – and like what you did last year – it means that you will no longer talk to us until the days of the strike”, said one of the coordinators of SNPVAC, Ana Dias , to JE. “This is despite the fact that we already have two meetings scheduled at the Ministry of Labor. But it seems to me that he will not want to negotiate anything after this strike,” he said.

“But as they only resolve about 18% of planned flights, which are already reaching the flight time limit, we estimate that nothing will be resolved until the end of the summer, unfortunately”, said Ana Dias.

The biggest problems can come at the end of the month, more precisely the last weekend of August, which happens between 31 and 1 September. These are dates related to the return after a fortnight of holidays but, as Jornal Económico knows, these are the dates on which the Union of Portuguese transport workers (STTAMP) – the second most represented in Groundforce, after SITAVA – admits to being discontinued.

At the end of July, the structure of the union issued a note in which it described the situation of “irregularity that continues in the company. [SPDH, atual Menzies Portugal]related to the excessive recruitment of workers from temporary employment companies, as well as the lack of definition of workers who have an employment contract for an indefinite term.”

Speaking to JE, STTAMP director Pedro Furet also raised the issue of “low wages, as well as the arrogance of the company”. For this reason, the union will call senior management from Menzies Internacional (SPdH’s buyer) to a meeting. And if this strike were to take place, given the diversity of Groundforce, it could affect many more companies. In fact, almost all airlines at the country’s largest airport, Lisbon, are served by Groundforce. easyJet, interestingly, is served by Portway.

When, in July 2021, workers at the former Groundforce went on strike, each day of the strike grounded around 300 flights. STTAMP represents around 400 workers from the former Groundforce. The largest union in the company is SITAVA, which at the end of July represented 1,024 members of SPdH, according to Fernando Henriques, the coordinator of the structure.