Following the failure to reach agreement during yesterday’s security staff assembly, the Government of Catalonia has reengaged its mediation efforts to resolve the conflict between Eulen, El Prat’s security contractor, and the employee’s strike committee.

 

The ministers of the Presidency; Territory and Sustainability; Labour, Social Affairs and Family; and Home Affairs met on Friday to address the situation regarding the strike called by the airport’s security staff and have urged the committee to reconsider the mediator’s proposal.

 

The Catalan Government presented its proposal at the beginning of the week, which was accepted by both Eulen and AENA, the Spanish airports authority, but rejected by the employees on Thursday. Today, the minister of the Presidency, Jordi Turull, explained that the Government would request the committee to hold another worker’s assembly to vote on the proposal again.

 

In the press conference that followed this extraordinary meeting, Minister Turull announced that the Generalitat would put the Mossos d’Esquadra at Aena’s disposal to “minimise inconveniences to passengers” however he maintained that offer had nothing to do with the issue of public order.

 

In this regard, to reduce the effects of the strike and the long lines, Turull urged AENA to share more information and improve basic communications channels with the Catalan Government. “It is inadmissible that passengers have to be at the airport five hours beforehand”, the Minister stated. “In spite of all of this, their attitude has been exemplary”, he added.

 

Later today, the minister of the Territory and Sustainability, Josep Rull; the minister of Labour, Social Affairs and Family, Dolors Bassa, and the minister of Home Affairs, Joaquim Forn, will meet with Spain’s Minister of Public Works and Transport, Íñigo de la Serna, at the State government’s delegation in Barcelona, to coordinate their different approaches to the situation.

 

El Prat is the State’s second busiest airport after Madrid, generating the highest revenue in Spain. The airport processed 44 million passengers last year and passenger traffic has increased by more than 60% from 2009-16. However, the state-owned airport operator, AENA, allocates almost half of the resources to El Prat in comparison to Madrid’s Barajas Airport.