A strike by Portway baggage handlers once again disrupted air traffic in Portugal. The strikers demanded a pay rise.
Dozens of new flights arriving and departing from major Portuguese airports were cancelled on Sunday due to a strike at baggage handler Portway, a subsidiary of the airport operator ANA, itself a subsidiary of the French group Vinci.
On the third and last day of this social movement, convened to demand wage increases, 69 flights were cancelled at Lisbon and Porto airports, Portway management said in a statement. “During the three days of the strike, the turnout was 14% and airlines cancelled 196 flights,” it added.
Among the twenty companies affected by this social movement, the low-cost carrier Easyjet was the most affected. The movement also caused disruptions at the airports of Funchal, on the island of Madeira, and Faro, in the tourist region of the Algarve.
The strikers demanded “an immediate increase in wages” allowing employees to “regain their purchasing power“, according to a union statement accusing the company of hindering career progression and of not respecting labour law in terms of remuneration.
Portway employs some 2,500 people in Portuguese airports. In its assessment of a strike deemed “irresponsible“, the company regretted “the significant damage caused to passengers, companies and Portway, which emerges from this situation in a more fragile commercial and economic position“.