Ben Mutzabaugh

USA TODAY





What’s the filthiest airport in the world? Last week, it easily could have been Barcelona’s El Prat Airport, where cleaners staged a five-day strike.

It didn’t take long for the trash to pile up there with cleaning crews off the job during the Nov. 28-Dec. 2 strike.

Travelers flying through the airport were greeted with an astounding amount of trash. Photos from the scene – many shared by fliers via social media – showed garbage spilling out of containers and heaped into large piles.

In photos from wire services (above), customers can be seen wheeling luggage across floors strewn with debris. El Prat Airport is the Barcelona's primary airport and one of the busiest in Europe, handling about 40 million passengers a year.

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The Straits Times of Singapore, citing a report from the Spanish-language El País newspaper of Madrid, says strike came as union workers protested changes to work schedules after the airport switched to lower-priced contract operator.

Compounding the situation, striking workers added to the mess themselves by throwing newspaper clippings and other items on to the airport grounds.

“It is disgusting, but we did not want to get here, the company has done nothing to solve the situation and we have to fight for our rights,” Domingo Alonso, a worker at the airport, is quoted as saying to the Spanish newspaper by The Telegraph of London.

The airport has since been cleaned, but workers are threatening another strike for Dec. 22-23 if no progress is made in their talks with management. Stay tuned ...

TWITTER: You can follow Today in the Sky editor Ben Mutzabaugh at twitter.com/TodayInTheSky

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