A sea of suitcases waits to be collected at El Prat airport due to the Groundforce strike
The protest of workers who invoice for airlines such as Air Europa and Lufthansa misplaces thousands of pieces of luggage
El Prat de LlobregatHundreds of suitcases piled up haphazardly have been accumulating on the ground in recent days at El Prat airport, parked without any control near the carousels where travelers hope to find their belongings. This has been the result of the indefinite strike by Groundforce personnel, a company responsible for checking in luggage for airlines such as Air Europa, Air France, Lufthansa, or United Airlines.
The protest by the handling company has caused queues at T1 check-in counters and flight delays and cancellations since it began at the start of Easter week, in addition to leaving thousands of suitcases at airports like Barcelona, but also at Barajas, Palma, and Malaga.
The lack of control has led many travelers to find their suitcases abandoned at the airport while queuing at the Groundforce counter to claim their luggage after days of waiting for it to be delivered home. "The airport is full of suitcases everywhere. All mixed up and scattered in different places. There is no surveillance or control: anyone can go there, pick one up, and take it away," explains Manuel Julià, who returned from Egypt on Monday and did not recover his luggage until Friday when he went to El Prat and found it there.
A scene that was repeated this midday at El Prat airport. Many people were entering through the arrivals gate in the opposite direction to access the area where the Groundforce counter is located. The queues have stretched for hours. Some have gone to claim suitcases they had lost, even before the strike began. "We found a suitcase forgotten behind a screen. Then, they took the rest of the luggage from our flight and left them there, next to a carousel, in plain sight of everyone," says Marta Torras.
At the queue this Saturday, passengers who had flown from different places, such as Belgium, the United States, and the Persian Gulf, mingled, with a lack of information and poor coordination as their main complaint. In fact, Groundforce handles the luggage for airlines such as Qatar Airways and Etihad Airways, companies that would have been more impacted by the strike if they hadn't been in a low period since the attack by the United States and Israel against Iran. The handling company also works for Air China, Shenzhen Airlines, or Singapore Airlines, which have become the best option to reach Asia from Europe since the conflict in the Middle East broke out.
Salary increase
Unlike other days, since this Saturday Aena has enabled a space in the arrivals area to store luggage that has not yet been collected, according to union sources. After Groundforce workers went on strike last week and at the beginning of this one, UGT, CCOO, and USO canceled the protests they had called for Wednesday and Friday. For the moment, they also maintain the suspension of protests for next week to continue negotiating with the company.
The main claim of the Groundforce workers is that the salary increase stipulated in the collective agreement is met, and thus, to recover the purchasing power lost in recent years; an update that amounts, on average, to about 700 euros per year per worker. The handling company has a workforce of 6,000 members throughout Spain, and about a thousand work at Barcelona airport.