Azores Ground Crews Will Walk Out for Three Hours a Day From 21 October, Contesting the Full Sale of SATA Handling
SITAVA and SINTAC have called mornings off from 21 to 27 October and late afternoons from 28 October to 3 November. They say Brussels never required the regional government to sell all of the ground handling business.
Ground staff at SATA Handling, the company that loads the bags and marshals the aircraft at airports across the Azores, will strike for three hours a day from 21 October to 3 November. The two aviation unions behind the notice say the walkout is aimed at the regional government's plan to sell the whole company.
The Sindicato dos Trabalhadores da Aviação e Aeroportos (Aviation and Airports Workers' Union, SITAVA) and the Sindicato Nacional dos Trabalhadores da Aviação Civil (National Union of Civil Aviation Workers, SINTAC) set out the terms in a joint communiqué dated 6 October, which the Lusa news agency reported on Friday.
When the strike hours fall
The strike covers every SATA Handling worker at every one of the company's sites and stations. The unions give the times in Azores local time, which is one hour behind Lisbon:
- 21 to 27 October: all work between 07:30 and 10:30 each day (08:30 to 11:30 in Lisbon).
- 28 October to 3 November: all work between 16:00 and 19:00 each day (17:00 to 20:00 in Lisbon).
Normal and overtime work inside those windows is covered, whatever shift a worker is on. Outside them, the unions say, work carries on as usual. Workers do not have to be union members to join, and they do not have to tell the company in advance.
Anyone with a flight from or within the Azores in those windows should check with their airline nearer the date. Neither union communiqué mentions minimum services.
Why the unions are walking out
SATA Handling is up for sale in full. As we reported in September, eleven parties registered interest in buying it by the 14 September deadline. The sale is one of the steps in the restructuring plan that the European Commission approved for the SATA Group, alongside the separate sale of at least 75 percent of Azores Airlines.
The unions say they sat on the regional government's working group, put forward proposals and suspended earlier industrial action in good faith, having been told that selling 100 percent of the ground handling business was a non-negotiable demand from Brussels. They now say the Commission has confirmed in writing that the full sale was the choice of the Portuguese authorities, and that the plan can be changed if the member state asks. "It was a political choice, not an inevitability," the 6 October communiqué says.
Their deeper objection, set out in a joint statement on 28 September, is about what happens after a sale. The regional airline, SATA Air Açores, is protected as a service of general economic interest and has to fly to every island whatever the cost. The unions argue that it would then become a captive customer of a private ground handler, which could raise its turnaround charges, especially when bad weather disrupts flights. They want ground handling given the same public-service status as the airline itself.
What the sale terms already promise
The tender rules published at the end of July include employment guarantees: no collective dismissals or abolished posts for 30 months, collective agreements honoured for at least 36 months, and the headquarters kept in the Azores for at least 30 months. The unions say that is not enough. An overtime strike notice they filed in April was withdrawn only after the regional president, José Manuel Bolieiro, set up the working group to follow the sale.
The communiqué ends with an appeal for strong turnout "on the nine islands". Lusa's report carried no response from SATA or the regional government.
