The STTAMP – Union of Transport Workers of Portugal, following the hearing at the Arbitration Court, announced today the minimum guaranteed services at airports, between 00:00 on the 31st of August (Saturday) and 24:00 on the 1st of September (Sunday), due to a SPdH – Serviços Portugueses de Handling, SA strike.
According to a press statement, regarding Madeira, the work activity necessary for the first landing and take-off between this Region and the mainland must be guaranteed, in addition to maintaining the provision of work inherent to the first landing and take-off of the flight between the islands, more specifically, between Funchal and Porto Santo.
Moreover, minimum services must be guaranteed “for all flights imposed by critical situations relating to the safety of person and property, including ambulance flights, emergency movements understood as declared flight situations, namely for technical or meteorological reasons and others that, by their nature, make flight assistance absolutely unavoidable.”
The same should occur for all military flights; for all State, national, or foreign flights; for all flights that at the time of the start of the strike were already underway according to their initial planning, and whose destinations are national airports assisted by the SPDH, and, on both days to the Azores, work must be provided to guarantee the first landing and take-off on the route between the mainland and the Region.
The same source adds that the unions “must designate the workers necessary to ensure the minimum services defined herein up to 48 hours before the start of the strike period, and SPdH – Serviços Portugueses de Handling, S.A., must do so if it is not informed of this designation in a timely manner.”
“The use of the work of adherents to strikes is only lawful if these minimum services cannot be ensured by non-adherent workers under the normal conditions of their work.”
STTAMP regrets that it has been necessary to reach this point, despite having tried in every way with the company to find solutions that would avoid this outcome.
“It will be up to the management of Menzies to take full responsibility for this stoppage because at no time did it present any alternative or proposal that could avoid the strike,” the strike notice concludes.
Samantha Gannon
info at madeira-weekly.com
