Airport workers strike at Rinas, Minister: They are holding the country hostage

07/04/2021 15:12

Employees of the Rinas International Airport in Tirana have gone on strike today, protesting over claims that they have not received their full salaries.

The protest of the Airport employees has led to the interruption of work from 9.23 to 09.55 and according to reports the strikers threatened that they will continue with other movements for blocking the air traffic.

The visit of the Minister of Infrastructure, Belinda Balluku to the Rinas airport was without result as she failed to convince the employees of the company “Albcontrol”, a state-owned company in the function of the airport, to return to work. According to the information, two flights were affected by this, one of “Aegean Airline” with destination Tirana and Air Albania with destination Istanbul-Tirana, which will be over 40 minutes late. The Aegean Airline plane now has returned to Athens.

Operations have resumed at 09.55 and “Aegean” is expected to resume to bring passengers to Tirana. Minister Balluku warns that legal measures will be taken, as this is a violation of national security. She adds that controllers have high salaries and other privileges, work only 17 days a month, or 205 days a year.

“Berisha has said the airport will be blocked, collapsed, etc., but did you know that because of this situation the vaccines will not arive today, this is an electoral campaign within the campaign”, said Balluku, referring to the former leader of the democratic opposition Sali Berisha.

She also asked for a statement from the president: “I would ask President Meta, as he also met with the controllers and asked for information from Albcontrol, to speak publicly today about this situation.”

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