Airport unions announce strike from August 19 to 21

Two unions in Portugal announced on Monday a strike notice for the 10 national airports under concession to Vinci Aeroportos between August 19 and 21.

“Faced with the inflexibility of the proposals presented by ANA/VINCI over the past year and the attempt to reduce rights enshrined in the Company Agreement, attacking the rights that workers have achieved over decades, SINTAC and SQAC consider it urgent to end this blind policy and put an end to all this instability,” the unions said in a statement.

According to the National Union of Civil Aviation Workers (SINTAC) and the Commercial Aviation Managers Union (SQAC), at stake are the “demand for the lifting of the suspension of contributions to the pension fund by Vinci”, as well as the hiring of “more human resources for airport operations, rescue operation supervisors and maintenance technicians in the various national airports.”

The strike notice was launched after consultation with workers and, according to the document, will cover “all workers at all ANA airports, under concession from the Vinci Airports group”, taking effect at 00:00 on 19 August and lasting until the end of 21 August.

SINTAC and SQAC point out that this notice comes “after several attempts, over the last few years, to prevent a strike from going ahead.”

The two unions are asking for the reinstatement of contributions to the workers’ pension fund, for Vinci Aeroportos to “stop trying to destroy the rights obtained over decades by ANA workers”, to “worthily increase the wages of its workers, taking into account its results and inflation” and to “take urgent measures to hire more human resources.”