The row at Faro airport increased in volume as the union SITAVA today criticised the 'arbitrary sacking' of 12 workers.
The dismissal of the workers is a strategy designed to deny the workers their employment rights, claims their union, and a strike now is on the cards.
The workers were fired because they got in a argument over health insurance, professional recognition and career progression, according to the union leader Armando Costa,
Last week, Portway, the ground handling company of ANA, dismissed the 12 air bridge operators, giving as justification the end of a service contract on 20 April.
After the winding up of the company where they formerly worked, the 12 workers were taken on by Portway but were never given a professional category, a situation that Armando Costa says it a way of denying them certain labour rights.
In October 2014 there was a dispute involving these workers and others involved in operating wheelchairs and those who collect the luggage trolleys in the terminal building.
Armando Costa said the union will offer support to the sacked workers so that they can challenge the dismissal using legal procedures.
"The deeper reason for this dismissal is that these workers have for some time been fighting for their rights. The way that this company solved the problem, rather than through negotiation, was simply to lay off the workers" added the Algarve Trade Unions coordinator António Goulart.
