Granada metro plans five-day strikes

Granada’s metro is heading toward a messy mid-May. Workers at Metro de Granada have called four days of partial stoppages and one full-day strike after rejecting Avanza’s latest collective bargaining offer. For riders, this is simple — the line that moves tens of thousands of people a day could be disrupted right in the busiest commuting windows. For workers, the fight is about pay, workload, and a contract they say has dragged on too long. (granadahoy.com) ### What exactly got called? The committee has scheduled partial strikes on May 11, 12, 13, and 14, plus a full-day strike on May 15. The partial stoppages are aimed at peak-demand periods, not the whole day, which means the disruption is designed to hit when the metro matters most. On May 15, the plan escalates to a total stoppage during normal service hours, along with a protest in central Granada. (granadahoy.com) ### Which hours are most at risk? The broad picture is morning, midday, and evening rush hour. Granada Hoy describes the partial strikes as running from 07:00 to 09:30, 13:00 to 15:30, and 18:30 to 21:00 on May 11 to 14. Europa Press adds that the exact windows vary slightly by day, (granadahoy.com)mally runs from 06:30 to 23:00 on weekdays. (granadahoy.com) ### Why are workers doing this now? The strike is tied to negotiations over a new collective agreement. Workers say Avanza has put forward proposals they consider unacceptable, and the current contract is already expired and simply being extended while talks continue. The committee (granadahoy.com)rticipation. (granadahoy.com) ### What are they actually asking for? The headline demand is parity with other Andalusian metro systems. Workers say Granada staff do the same kind of work as employees in Málaga and Sevilla but earn much less and have weaker conditions on things like shifts, leave, accident-related absences, and retirement terms. Basically, they are not pitching this as a bonus fight — they are pitching it as a catch-up fight. (granadahoy.com) ### How big is the pay gap? Big enough to make the dispute concrete. Workers say the salary gap exceeds €7,000 a year, and Europa Press says the committee puts the difference at roughly 30% compared with Sevilla. That matters because once a labor dispute has a number this clear, it stops sounding abstract. It becomes a benchmark workers can point to every time management says the offer is reasonable. (granadahoy.com) ### Why do workers say Granada is tougher? Their argument is that Granada’s line is unusually stressful to operate. The system runs through key trip generators like hospitals, the bus station, and the train station, and workers say the route has almost 60 surface crossings. That mea(granadahoy.com)ss margin for error. (europapress.es) ### Will the metro shut completely? Not necessarily on the partial-strike days. The Junta de Andalucía still has to set minimum service levels for the five strike dates, and those rules will decide how much service survives. The catch is that even with minimum service, rush-hour strikes can still feel severe because normal weekday frequencies tighten precisely when demand spikes. (granadahoy.com) ### Why does this matter beyond one labor dispute? Because Metro de Granada is not a niche line. Workers say it moves more than 60,000 passengers a day, and sometimes more than 80,000, with recent holiday periods pushing records higher. So this is not just an internal contract squabble — it is a test of whether Granada’s main rail spine can keep running smoothly while the operator and workforce are still this far apart. (granadahoy.com) ### Bottom line Unless negotiations suddenly improve, Granada riders should expect real disruption from May 11 to 15 — especially at commute hours, and possibly all day on May 15. (granadahoy.com)