Iberia Employees to Strike Against Job Cuts (Travel-News.co.uk)

February 16, 2013

Passengers due to travel with Iberia, the Spain based airline that is owned by International Airlines Group (IAG), may face difficulties in the near future as unions have announced 15 days of strikes.

The airline has announced that its management and the six unions representing employee groups have failed to reach an agreement on the issue of a transformation plan.

As part of the transformation plan, the airline wants to cut its routes, and focus on its profitable operations. The airline will also be reducing its staff by 3,147 operatives, 30 percent less than an original figure of 4,500, and will use a current layoff programme until 2015.

Commenting on the strike action at Iberia, Gabriel Mocho, the civil aviation secretary of the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF), said, ‘The fingerprints of Willie Walsh (CEO of IAG, the parent group of Iberia and British Airways) are visible in the breakdown in talks that led to this declaration. Orders from above have clearly denied Iberia the freedom to achieve a joint negotiated plan with unions to secure a profitable future for the airline.

Complete article at Travel-News.co.uk

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