Spanish flag carrier Iberia airlines to sack 6,000

Spanish flag carrier airline Iberia will sack 6,000 employees in a restructuring plan to offset first-semester operating losses of 263 million euros, union sources told ABC daily newspaper on Monday. In an August letter to employees, Iberia CEO Rafael Sanchez-Lozano had warned that ''significant sacrifices'' would have to be made in the face of ''an authentic emergency,'' with measures affecting ''the size of the company, working conditions, and employment volume.'' The restructuring plan, which management will present in November, might include 5% salary cuts, a two-year retirement freeze, and cutting April wage bonuses, the sources said. Union leaders want management to recover routes ceded to Iberia Express, the group's low-cost airline, to Vueling, of which Iberia is a majority stakeholder, and to Air Nostrum, which has a franchise on Iberia's short-distance flights. The restructuring plan is being put together in London, and therefore violates terms of the 2011 Iberia-British Airways merger, sources from the Spanish Airline Pilots Union (SEPLA) argued. The layoffs will probably end up being 2,000 under the restructuring plan, SEPLA said.