Security staff at Barcelona airport are beginning a continuous 24-hour strike over pay after voting to reject a company offer.<br /><br />The workers are stepping up their action after staging on-off stoppages for several weeks. <br /><br />The government has vowed to send in police to make sure the airport continues to function and wants an arbitration tribunal to rule on the matter.<br /><br />Diego Giraldez, a national official with the UGT union, told euronews that the airport had chosen a private security company which paid workers less than the previous contractor. He blames the government.<br /><br />“It (the government) has been hiding without taking any action, and when it has chosen to act it’s done so very disproportionately,” he said. “And I think that has ensnared a situation of greater tension towards the security guards, who in the end the Government has designated as the guilty parties – whereas every day the UGT union say the blame lies with the disastrous policies towards private security recruitment – which besides is the direct responsibility of the government of the Popular Party.”<br /><br />Madrid says it has no option but to send in the Guardia Civil because the strike threatens passengers, the country’s image, and security and public order.<br /><br />The union is looking to extend the industrial action to La Coruña and Santiago de Compostela in northwestern Spain.<br /><br />“We have called a strike at airports in Galicia, and obviously we will be on the street and we will call for all the mobilisation that workers in the sector require,” Giraldez said.<br /><br />In Barcelona security workers complain that as well as low – salaries start at 800 euros a month – understaffing has brought overwork.<br /><br />The company and union are now left to negotiate alone as the regional Catalan government has pulled out.<br />
