Iberia (IB, Madrid Barajas) has failed to reach an agreement with unions representing its staff groups and has announced it would now go ahead with 3,807 job cuts. It had originally announced back in November that it would plan to lay off up to 4,500 of its approximately 20,000 employees as part of a restructuring plan necessary due to massive financial losses. Iberia says it had no other option after unions had rejected earlier offers for other plans including early retirement plans and salary cuts. The unions have now announced three strikes, from February 18 to February 22, from March 4 to March 8 and from March 18 to March 22 to protest the decision saying Iberia's offer had fallen short of agreements reached earlier in arbitration. Iberia has announced that it expects to be able to operate approximately 40% of its services during the first strike period.