Unions threaten strikes at airports over Christmas and New Year
Menzies' largest union will consider strike action at the end of December to protest against the uncertainty surrounding the future of workers created by the handling tender.
Social stability in handling services at Portugal’s largest airports is hanging by a thread after the tender for licences for the next seven years was won by a Spanish consortium, which has since been challenged by Menzies. The unions have scheduled a meeting with the government this week, but promise to go ahead with a strike if the uncertainty about the future of the company and jobs continues — starting with the general strike on 11 December.
The preliminary report on the tender for the award of licences for the next seven years at Lisbon, Porto and Faro airports, released on 15 October, gave the highest score to the consortium comprising the Spanish companies Clece and South (Iberia group’s handling company). SPdH, the current licence holder operating under the Menzies brand, the British company that acquired 50.1% of the capital of the former Grounforce in 2024, contested the result at a preliminary hearing, and the jury’s analysis is still ongoing.
As the current licences expire on Wednesday, 19 November, the Ministry of Infrastructure approved an order last Friday extending them for another six months. This decision did not please the Aviation Workers’ Union (SITAVA), the most representative union in the company, which does not accept that SPdH workers should be ‘put on the back burner’ without guarantees about their jobs and rights.
SITAVA says that workers “will immediately find the best ways to fight back”. What are they? “It will certainly involve strikes and demonstrations in December, possibly even taking advantage of the general strike”, Fernando Henriques, a union leader, told ECO. The decision to proceed with advance notice will be made “early next week”.
The union leader says that “the uncertainty about the future of around 4,000 jobs and their respective rights beyond December is unacceptable”. “A month has passed since the preliminary report was released and the guarantees for workers today are exactly the same as they were on that day, i.e. zero”, he criticises.
Rui Souto Lopes, from the Aviation and Airport Handling Workers’ Union (STHAA), the second largest union represented in SPdH, assures that his union is “aligned with SITAVA in defending jobs” at Menzies and that “workers are not willing to wait another six months”.
The STHAA leader confirms that the possibility of a strike “is on the table” and stresses that if it takes place at Christmas or New Year “it will have a different impact”, adding that the last major strike at airports was called by STHAA in 2021. Rui Souto Lopes does not, however, link the general strike on the 11th to this demand.
The strike must be called at least 10 days in advance, which is why the unions want clarification of the tender result by the first week of December. It is in this context that a new meeting is scheduled for this week at the Ministry of Infrastructure, which could be decisive.
“A possible decision in January/February, which is what we think they are trying to do, would take away any leverage from the workers, so we will not allow the situation to be delayed beyond the end of the year. January and February are the weakest months at airports”, points out Fernando Henriques.
Rui Souto Lopes states that if “the final result of the tender [for handling licences] is presented by mid-December, there may not be a strike”.
The SITAVA leader states that a strike will only be avoided if the outcome is “the continuation of SPdH” or “if the Government can guarantee in writing that, regardless of who wins the licences, jobs and workers’ rights will be safeguarded at the five airports”.
The Clece/South consortium is willing to take on Menzies workers, not least because it would be unable to find others with the necessary training and experience, but it may not hire them while maintaining the rights they have already acquired at SPdH. Furthermore, not all of them would be taken on.
Fernando Henriques points out that there are more than 900 Menzies workers who work at check-in and boarding, activities that are not included in the licences up for tender (baggage handling, cargo handling and ramp handling), whose jobs will be at risk if Clece/South wins. The same applies to workers in Funchal and Porto Santo.
If it loses to the Spanish consortium, SPdH will lose a large part of its business and face a new insolvency process.
