The meeting took place after a tender for ground handling assistance at the airports of Lisbon, Porto, and Faro preliminary awarded licenses to the Clece/South consortium, within the Iberia group, while Menzies finished in second place.
In statements, Catarina Silva, leader of the STTAMP, emphasized that the unions’ only concern is “jobs and rights.”
The two unions represent around 600 workers of SPdH, where Menzies holds the majority stake following an insolvency process, she noted.
According to the union leader, if these issues are secured, “it is irrelevant to these unions who the shareholder is or who takes charge, as long as they assume the workers.”
“Therefore, we want stability in operations, whether it’s with South/Clece, it’s fine as long as they assume the workers and the workers’ rights,” she stressed.
Regarding the business transfer, if the Clece/South consortium wins the tender, this option has “not been guaranteed 100%” since “there may be other scenarios,” Catarina Silva indicated, noting that this is the desired model. “What we want is exactly […] the business transfer if they are the winners, because that obviously guarantees the jobs and rights from the start,” she stated.
In other words, she highlighted, they seek “continuity,” not a situation where the winner might reject SPdH but keeps the workers on their terms.
Regarding a potential strike, Catarina Silva mentioned that this issue “does not arise with these two unions,” stressing that they want “calm workers” and for whoever wins this tender to “have a stable company because, at this moment, instability will bear no fruit, neither for the workers nor the companies involved, nor the airlines we assist.”
On Tuesday, in statements to Lusa, Fernando Henriques from the Airport and Aviation Workers Union (Sitava) stated the final message conveyed by the Government in a meeting, also attended by the Aviation Handling and Airport Workers Union (STHAA), was that it “does not want instability at the airports.”
According to Fernando Henriques, for the union, there are “a set of commitments made with Menzies for 2026 regarding the future Company Agreement,” including salary tables and other issues on which a commitment for negotiations was obtained after acquiring the licenses.
“In any scenario other than the licenses being granted to SPdH, this goal will be at risk, and thus there will be immense pressure from the workers, leading to labor and social instability,” he explained.
In the preliminary report of the tender, accessed by Lusa, the jury chaired by Sofia Simões gave a score of 95.2523 to the Clece/South group within the Iberia universe, while Menzies (formerly Groundforce) ended with a score of 93.0526.
