Alicante-Elche and Murcia airports first day of strikes on Monday (January 30th) is amongst 162 air traffic controllers taking part across Spain.

The strikes will be every Monday throughout February, on the 6th, 13th, 20th, and 27th.

The airports it affects are Coruña, Alicante-Elche, Castellón, Cuatro Vientos, El Hierro, Fuerteventura, Ibiza, Jerez, Lanzarote, La Palma, Lleida, Murcia, Sabadell, Seville, Valencia, and Vigo.

The strikes scheduled will continue in February at Spanish airports, with privatised control towers.

After a meeting on January 26 held by the legal representatives of the workers and service providers in the liberalised control towers with the employers, made up of FerroNats and Saerco, it was announced it had been unsuccessful and the strike will continue, according to the union.

At the negotiating committee meeting, Saerco put a proposal on the table to increase the CPI for the years 2021 (0%), 2022 (1%), 2023 (2%), and 2024 (2.5%).

It did not meet the expectations of the workers, whose representatives said: “It falls far short of their proposal”.

Saerco said that the proposal for a 5.5% increase in its wage bill is unreasonable: “It puts the viability of the company at serious risk”.

Cover staff will be brought in to try and alleviate the situation, but delays and some cancellations are inevitable.