Tue, Dec 07, 2010
"Wildcat" Strike Snarled Air Traffic, Stranded Passengers
The Spanish Government issued a "state of alarm" over the
weekend as that country's air traffic controllers staged a
"wildcat" strike which snarled air traffic in Spain. The military
was eventually called in to break up the strike, according to a
report in The New York Times. The work action came Saturday at the
beginning of one of the country's biggest holiday weekends.
Madrid and other airports in Spain had been closed by the
strike, causing the cancellation of 4,300 flights, affecting more
than half a million passengers, and costing airlines millions of
dollars the paper reported. The controllers were protesting plans
to cut their pay and increase their work hours. Air traffic
controllers in Spain reportedly earn an average salary of
$470,000, but some have made as much as $1.2 million. The
government has proposed cutting that average salary to about
$265,000.
Breaking up the strike required an emergency cabinet meeting to
declare the "state of alarm" for the first time in the country's
democratic history. The military was called in to take control of
airport towers, and civilian controllers were told they faced
prosecution if they failed to return to work immediately.
Pilots and air traffic controllers have threatened to strike in
the days approaching the Christmas holidays, but the Spanish Deputy
Prime Minister Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba said the lessons
learned from this weekend's events would prevent a similar
occurrence later this month.
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