Striking union workers clashed with police at Madrid's Barajas airport on Monday, February 18 on the first day of a week-long strike over more than 3,800 pending job cuts at Spain's flagship airline Iberia, Reuters said.

More than 80 Iberia flights were canceled as workers at the carrier began a series of five-day walkouts that are expected to cost the airline and struggling national economy millions of euros in lost business.

Hundreds of workers flooded into Terminal 4 at Barajas - the biggest airport in Spain - to noisily protest, chanting and whistling, with one group staging a sit-in. About 2,000 people demonstrated outside the terminal.

The police beat some strikers with truncheons to keep them away from the doors of the international airport, Iberia's Madrid hub, and forcefully threw others out of the terminal. At least five protesters were arrested.

Previous strikes have cost Iberia between 2 million euros and 3 million euros a day.

Flights from other airlines were delayed at airports across Spain, including at Madrid and Barcelona, as Iberia baggage handlers, also working for other airlines, joined strikers.