When the Spanish airline Iberia first began its new budget airline branch, Iberia Express, last year airline officials insisted it wouldn’t negatively affect the jobs of those already employed by the airline.
Of course, anyone who knows most major companies lie didn’t believe them so many Iberia employees went out on strike in protest. Exactly one year later, it’s not surprising to many that Iberia has now announced layoffs of 4,500 employees, a quarter of its entire workforce, and is also cutting routes to Greece, Turkey, Cuba and the Dominican Republic.
Most of the routes being cut will cease being run by January 1st, 2013 with the remainder ending in March. Twenty five planes will also be grounded indefinitely.
As for the Iberia layoffs, the airline’s staff have already announced another round of strikes that will soon be impacting Iberia’s ability to fly its normal routes. You can’t really blame them.
Not after they’ve been lied to during a Spanish financial crisis that is one of the worst in Europe.