An agreement has been reached to terminate the ground crew strike that lasted for hours at Geneva airport and resulted in multiple flight delays and cancellations during the peak holiday travel period.
“Victory!”, the SSP public sector union said on X, formerly Twitter, shortly before midday.
About eight hours earlier, at 4 am (0300 GMT), the workers started their walkout, demanding from their employer, the Dubai National Air Travel Agency (dnata), “dignified working conditions and decent wages.”
The workers “have succeeded in fending off attacks on their retirement fund and in securing increased pay, benefits, and overtime pay,” according to SSP.
In a statement, Dnata, an Emirati airport service provider, verified “the resolution of the industrial action” and said that its staff members had resumed work at noon.
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”.
Luggage left behind
The Geneva Airport emphasized on Sunday that it was not associated with the conflict that existed between Dnata and its workers, and expressed remorse that the walkout had taken place while talks were still in progress.
Six flights were canceled as a result, according to the airport, while several more experienced delays of more than an hour.
Furthermore, according to the statement, “a number of flights were operated without loading or offloading luggage.”
Ignace Jeannerat, an airport spokesperson, told AFP that only flights assisted by Dnata workers had experienced issues prior to the agreement.
“A majority of operations are going very smoothly,” he said.
It is believed that Dnata employs over 600 people at the airport to manage several ground operations, such as baggage handling and ticketing services, for a variety of major airlines, including British Airways, Air France, and KLM.
Jeannerat reported that dnata had been assigned to assist 85 out of the 417 flights that were planned to take place on Sunday, when 52,000 passengers were expected to pass through the Geneva airport.
All flights handled by dnata’s competitor Swissport “are functioning normally… Zero problems”, he said.
Pay hike, bonuses
About half of the DANA employees, according to the union, had decided to participate in Sunday’s walkout in protest of a five-percent pay increase.
The sides had reached an agreement on the three percent wage rise that the company had suggested after multiple rounds of negotiations, according to a statement from SSP.
According to the statement, the agreement also calls for a 500 Swiss franc ($584) incentive in January, for an average increase of more than 4% overall.
After accusing Dnata of applying “pressure” and threatening to dismiss striking employees, SSP declared that Dnata had withdrawn those threats and that it would now compensate the workers for the hours they were on strike.
Dnata said Sunday’s agreement “reinforces our dedication to maintaining a strong social partnership, fostering a cooperative working environment, and ensuring the continued success of our company”.