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Latest update: 09/12/2010
- aviation - José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero - Spain - strike
Zapatero vows to extend state of alert to avoid more air controller strikes
Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero has pledged to extend a state of alert as long as necessary to avoid a repeat of the December 3rd wildcat air controllers' strike. It was the first state of alert in Spain since 1975.
By News Wires (text)
AFP - Spain's prime minister vowed Thursday to extend a state of alert if necessary to prevent a repeat of a 24-hour wildcat air traffic controllers' strike.
Air traffic controllers called in sick en masse December 3 in a dispute over working hours, shutting down Spain's airspace at the start of a long holiday weekend and affecting an estimated 300,000 travellers.
Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero's government forced them to return the next day by declaring a 15-day state of alert, putting the military in command and threatening jail time for those who refused orders.
It was the first state of alert in Spain since the 1975 death of dictator General Francisco Franco.
"We will not be in a state of alert one day more nor one day less than required so that this country's citizens can travel without being blackmailed by air traffic controllers," he told parliament.
The prime minister defended his decision to call the state of alert in the parliamentary debate.
"No-one, neither individually nor collectively, can take the citizens as a whole as hostages to their claims," Zapatero told parliament.
"The government will not hesitate to use, without ignoring the requirements of proportionality, all the instruments of rule of law to end situations such the one we experienced at the weekend."
Zapatero said 190 air force officials had been deployed to Spain's air traffic control towers and more than 2,000 police dispatched to airports to boost security for passengers.
Air traffic controllers had acted in "open rebellion" against the rule of law, he said. "It was an affront to the constitutional order and as such it had to be confronted."
Spain's airport authority AENA has opened disciplinary proceedings against 442 controllers.
Centre-right daily El Mundo said Monday the government hoped to extend the state of alert for two months so as to train military personnel to take over the jobs of dismissed controllers.
The government has accused air traffic controllers of defending "intolerable privileges".
According to the transport ministry, there are 2,300 air traffic controllers in Spain earning an average 200,000 euros a year.
In February the government cut back controllers' overtime to a maximum 80 hours a year, slicing into paypackets that had bulged with overtime pay of two-three times the normal rate of 117 euros an hour.
Previously, controllers had earned an average of more than 300,000 euros, with 135 of them taking home more than 600,000 euros a year and 713 between 360,000 and 540,000 euros a year, ministry figures showed.
The weekend strike coincided with a government ruling Friday saying the maximum time worked by air traffic controllers is 1,670 hours a year -- 32 hours a week -- but that this excludes non-aeronautical work.
A spokesman for the Syndicate Union of Air Controllers said this meant time taken for paternity or sick leave would not count within the maximum working hours.
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Comments (1)
Husband of an air traffic controller
Dear sir/madam, I am the husband of a Spanish air traffic controller and a concerned permanent resident within the European Community. I direct this letter to you to attest my bewilderment at the inactivity by the governing body of Europe against the flagrant destruction of a collective agreement by the Spanish Government and its consequential outcomes.
The continual persecution of the Air Traffic Controller Collective by the Minister of Transport and Public Works, Jose Blanco, has put this collective in jeopardy of their constitutional rights. This became more evident after the last decree law passed by the Spanish Government on Friday 3rd of December 2010 and the recent militarisation of all air traffic controllers in Spain. My wife had to sign a letter instructing her that she is now considered military personnel. She now has to work or be imprisoned for up to 8 years. No European citizen should be forced to work coerced or not by the military. Isn´t that slavery?
The latest decree law 13/2010 dated 3rd of December 2010 once again changed the limits of their working hours of 1670 hours per year plus 80 hours overtime by not including the following: hours on-call, training, union hours and sick or maternity leave. This law does not pertain to any other workers in Spain! The Spanish Government has been continually breaking the law since February 5th 2010 by changing the conditions of the collective agreement by decree law at whim. These changes in working conditions are derived from the inept management of AENA (Aeropuertos Españolas y Navegacion Aerea) the air service provider. Some air traffic controllers had finished their yearly quotas of hours, hence a new law had to be improvised to conceal the incompetencies and personnel shortages of AENA. Many unions from Spain and the European Union (see their public declarations attached) have shown their support to the Air Traffic Controllers Union (USCA). Including, ATCEUC who represent 28 independent European Air Traffic Controller trade unions and 13.000 operational Air Traffic Controllers. Additional support has been received from STAVLA (the union for air cabin crews in Spain), CGT and FSAI. All have voiced their concerns of the ability and willingness by an assumed democratic government to crush a collective agreement, their fundamental rights and the risk of safety. With Europe wanting to implement The Single European Sky, Europe can not allow workers´ rights and air safety to be put aside by a government exhibiting totalitarian tendencies. My wife has tried applying for her European license which she is entitled to by European law thus enabling her to resign from AENA and find work in another country.
This has been made impossible by AENA through misinformation and subterfuge. I respectfully ask for your guidance and support to restore my wife´s rights as a citizen of Europe, or at least enable her to obtain her European air traffic control licence which she is by law entitled to, so we can persue our lives in a nation of absolute democracy. I am with-holding my wife´s identity until contacted by yourself personally or somebody from another entity in Europe for fear of her safety and or other repercussions.
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