Delays in Barcelona airport on first day of Groundforce baggage handlers strike

Monday has seen the beginning of strike action by ground handling staff Groundforce at Barcelona airport. 

The strike is set to last from until an agreement is reached, affecting every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday between 5am-7am, 11am-5pm and 10pm-12am.

The Groundforce strike is causing delays of up to 20 minutes for several airlines at El Prat airport, including Air France-KLM and Lufthansa.

The first phase of the indefinite stoppage of the company's ground staff "has not had a noticeable effect on operations" and has not resulted in any cancellations, as explained by the UGT head of the aviation sector, Josep Ramírez.

The union leader also explained that they have reported the company's distribution of minimum services to the Labour Inspectorate.

For now, no mediation has been called with Groundforce, so there is no forecast of cancellation, he said.

The stoppage coincides with the Easter holidays and has resulted in queues at the check-in counters in T1.

Groundforce provides services to Lufthansa, Etihad Airways and Qatar Airways, mainly.

Menzies strike

Another strike by Menzies staff, another handling operator, is called from this Thursday.

Ramírez says that "an agreement could be reached" to cancel it if the company puts on paper what they have discussed with the workers' organizations over the weekend.

In their case, they work for Emirates, British Airways, Latam, Turkish Airlines, and Norwegian.