Vueling and the cabin crew unions are immersed in the negotiation of the new collective agreement after the three-month strike that the Stavla organization called in the airline -it ended on January 31-. Once the talks between the company and the group of worker representatives have resumed, the parties have proposed to reach an agreement before the end of March.
The pact is crucial for the airline's growth, as the company's parent company, the IAG group, highlighted this Friday, both in a conference with analysts to present the results for 2022 and in a subsequent meeting with the press. IAG conditions investments in Vueling to a "sustainable" agreement with the unions. In other words, it must be financially viable and guarantee stability in the company.
Closing an agreement "is critical to determine the group's investment in the company in the future," said Luis Gallego, CEO of IAG. Among other issues, the capacity that Vueling will offer this year is at stake.
As IAG has communicated to analysts, the objective is for Vueling to exceed pre-pandemic capacity this 2023, with a 116% recovery compared to 2019. However, this activity "is subject to the achievement of sustainable collective labor agreements", Point to the submitted documentation.
The Stavla union, which called the recent strike, demanded a 13.4% salary increase by 2022, an increase that the president of the airline, Marco Sansavini, described as "unfeasible" at the time. The union's demands entailed a total salary increase of 33% by 2025, they highlighted from Vueling then, and they were not willing to assume it.
Shortly before, in August, the company based at El Prat airport had reached an agreement with CC.OO. to raise the salary of cabin crew. The increase was 6.5%, corresponding to the 2021 CPI, but Stavla stood out and did not sign. From there, they launched their own demands and got up from the negotiating table, starting the strikes. The situation has now changed and the negotiation has been redirected with all the actors sitting at the dialogue table. At stake is the growth of the airline.
The main company at Barcelona airport returned to profit in the last year, with 187 million euros. In total, Vueling transported close to 32 million passengers in 2022, only 7.6% less than three years earlier. This is the largest recovery in terms of passengers among all IAG group airlines. The airline also plans to open up to 30 new routes this year and start flying in Reus, connecting this airport with its base in Paris-Orly.
Level, the long-haul low cost that operates in El Prat (dependent on Iberia), remained far from pre-pandemic activity, with barely 499,000 passengers transported (73.4% less than in 2019). For this 2023, it plans to exceed the capacity of 2019 in a notable way.
