Arbitration panel rules on essential services during airport worker strikes
Portugal's ground handling staff, now part of Menzies, have initiated a series of strikes starting from July 25, 2025, spanning five consecutive weekends until the end of August. The strike action will affect all major Portuguese airports, including Lisbon, Porto, Faro, and others in mainland Portugal and the islands.
The strikes are a response to unresolved labor issues, primarily focused on base salaries below the national minimum wage, inadequate payment for night shifts and unsocial hours, and the maintenance of access to employee parking as previously agreed. The workers are also demanding full compliance with a Memorandum of Understanding signed after Menzies took over Groundforce, which includes wage increases through 2026 and payment of over €2.5 million in outstanding back pay.
The affected weekends include the last weekend of July, from midnight July 25 to midnight July 28, and all four subsequent weekends throughout August 2025. The strikes will last for 24 hours each day during the strike periods, causing significant disruption to flights, including delays, cancellations, and boarding delays. Ground operations at all Portuguese airports will be affected, threatening check-in processes, baggage handling, and aircraft servicing.
Critical safety services will remain operational to avoid safety risks, but the strikes coincide with a busy summer travel season, likely causing serious travel chaos and impacting tourism. The unions have also planned strikes for the entire days between August 15-18, 22-25, and 29-1 September, following the same pattern.
The Arbitral Tribunal has defined minimum assistance services on a shift basis for flights in critical safety situations, ambulance flights, emergency movements, military flights, state flights, flights already in progress at the start of the strike, and TAP flights returning to Lisbon that are in 'night-stop' in Europe. However, the definition does not address the unions' demands for improved wages, night shift pay, and other conditions, nor does it mention the maintenance of access to the parking lot under the same terms and conditions as before.
The strikes will undoubtedly pose challenges for the aviation sector in Portugal during peak travel periods, and travellers are advised to check the status of their flights and make necessary arrangements.
- What about the aerospace and transportation industries in Portugal, especially public-transit and finance sectors, considering the ongoing strikes by ground handling staff at major airports?
- Could the ongoing industrial action by Menzies' workers, affecting Portugal's major airports, lead to potential financial impacts for the aerospace and transportation sectors?
- With the summer travel season underway and the continuing strikes by ground staff at Portuguese airports, will the public-transit and transportation industries, as well as the finance sector, face potential challenges in meeting traveler expectations and ensuring smooth operations?
