GENEVA: A deal has been reached to end hours-long strike by ground staff at Geneva airport, which had caused numerous flight delays and cancellations during the holiday rush.
“Victory!”, the SSP public sector union said on X, shortly before midday.
The workers began their strike about eight hours earlier, at 4 am, demanding “dignified working conditions and decent wages” from their employer.
The employees “have succeeded in repelling attacks on their retirement fund and in obtaining improved salaries, indemnities and overtime compensation”, SSP said.
Around 80 strikers had gathered in front of the airport before dawn, wearing bright yellow safety vests and brandishing union flags and posters with messages like: “Dnata is killing me” and “Precarious work means grounded flights”.
Geneva airport stressed Sunday that it had not been involved in the dispute, and said it regretted that the strike had gone ahead while negotiations were ongoing.
The airport said six flights had been cancelled as a result, while some others had been delayed by more than an hour.
In addition, “a number of flights were operated without loading or offloading luggage”, the statement said.
Prior to the deal, airport spokesman Ignace Jeannerat said that some flights had faced problems.
It reportedly counts around 600 staff at the airport who handle various ground operations, including ticketing services and baggage handling, for a number of international airlines such as British Airways, Air France and KLM.
Jeannerat said dnata had been tasked with assisting 85 of the 417 flights scheduled for Sunday, a day when the Geneva airport was expecting 52,000 passengers to travel through. — AFP
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