Yet another day of chaos at Barcelona's El Prat airport. The first stage of the partial strike by workers of the Eulen security company caused queues at the airport's security control of up to 45 minutes, according to AENA. The queues began at dawn and by 5am there were already large crowds in the airport's halls, even though the hour of the first strike was not scheduled to start until 5:30am.
The passengers, most of them informed about the situation, had travellled to the airport with enough time to avoid losing their flights. However, in some cases passengers were still stuck in the queues and did not make it on time. From 6:30am, the security control service gradually returned to its normal routine, and the queues reduced to a waiting time of approximately 20 minutes.
Later, in order not to overload the main security control area during the hour of the second strike, some domestic flight passengers were diverted towards another control, and a special queue was created for families with children and the elderly. Some people who queued complained about the lack of information and problems of organisation by the security company and AENA.
The exclusive queue for families with children / Sergi Alcàzar
Throughout the morning, the crowds grew yet again when the workers were due to stop, with the waiting time in the queues increasing to about an hour, or 1 hour fifteen minutes. Faced with this, the anger and nervousness among the passengers also increased, with several venting their frustration and making aggressive gestures towards staff at information desks around the airport.
The queues continued to increase in length, both at the T-1 and T-2 terminals, to the point that passengers have also queued outside the terminal buildings, out in the street.
Meeting between AENA, Eulen and the workers
AENA planned to meet with the security workers and Eulen management with the aim of mediating a negotiation between the two parties just before the strike, which is planned to be an indefinite strike from 14th August. For now, it is unknownn how the meeting went, or when it finished.
The Secretary General of Labour, Josep Ginesta, was optimistic about the result of the meeting. "It is possible and feasible that this is resolved before 14th August," he said in an interview with Catalunya Ràdio. "The ray of light with AENA calling the meeting - that makes us optimistic."
However, Ginesta has criticised the sanction of Eulen of up to €300,000 that AENA announced on Thursday. "The fine pours fuel on the fire," he said, in a situation in which "the workers should not be made to feel that their conditions are worse than those of a worker in the rest of the State".
At 1pm, another meeting has been convened between AENA, Eulen and the Department of Labour.