Aena handling workers in Palma work among fleas and cockroaches: "It's a disgrace."

Workers of companies subcontracted by Aena to provide logistics and ground operations services to aircraft, airlines and passengers (handling) at Son Sant Joan Airport complain of working "among fleas and cockroaches." A worker on the ARA Baleares plane shows off her body "covered in flea bites." In fact, at the workers' demonstration this Friday protesting working conditions, the secretary of the UGT (Union of Workers' Union) for the air sector in the Balearic Islands, José Negreira, denounced that "there's everything in the baggage claim area." "We have workers with many bites all over the place. It's shameful," he reiterated. Along the same lines, he added that passengers, "when they board, they see fireflies running around." "The airport is the gateway for tourism to the Islands. We're the first face they see, and the service isn't very good," he insisted.

For his part, José García, secretary of the UGT Federation of Services, Mobility, and Consumption, explained that the infrastructure doesn't even have a cafeteria for workers. "If I want a sandwich, I have to pay seven euros," complains a Menzies Aviation worker. She adds that this price "includes the airport worker discount." They also don't have their own space to eat, so they have to eat their afternoon snacks, lunch, or dinner on the trolley used to transport their luggage to the planes. Filth spreads throughout the facilities, "full of manure," and they denounce the "unsanitary" conditions of the workers' water coolers and the icebox where their food is stored.

A worker who has worked at the airport for 24 years—now for Menzies Aviation and EasyJet—laments that Aena allows "concessions to companies that have won a tender without checking whether they meet the requirements the worker had before working for them." Similarly, she criticizes Aena for subcontracting to "small companies that only seek maximum productivity," something that is reflected in the employment contracts. "Before, we only had three operators, and now they've thought this is the goose that lays the golden eggs," she complains.

Regarding schedules, another worker complains that some colleagues work "15 hours" and also "split shifts," which sometimes forces them "to sleep in their cars." Aena declined to comment on the conditions reported by the workers, who—with the support of the UGT (Union of Workers' Unions)—threatened a "total collapse" of Palma airport in August. Negreira warned that "if the government and Aena don't contact the workers within a week," they will bring out a hundred cars they have already prepared and begin circling the roundabout with the goal of "making sure no one gets through."