Oh my God ! here we go again .
I am not going to comment on the comments to say that the old entente cordiale is still not on today..
The discussions so far Looked like a Monthy Python fortress taking...( for those who saw the movie..) .
Some information :
The reason for the strike is the discusions on the " Single sky " initiative from the EU pushed by the commissionner, Miss Loyola de Palacio , a Spanish lady .The presidency of the EU is going to go to Spain on 1.1. 02. They fear that things will move faster by then.
They fear that with the Single Sky plans ,ATC would be open to concurrence and be privatised ( like in the UK) They are against this and strike to support their Minister ( a communist ) who is opoosed to ATC privatisation.
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To make things a bit more comnplicated, in France there are at leat 5 Unions representing the controllers. The main union (54% controllers vote for it but only 17% pay their dues, another French particularity ) SNCTA is not on strike, the 4 others are.
SNCTA said they support the idea but think this is not the moment to strike. ( I could agree wih that !)
Anyway it stops tomorrow morning.
Now where did I put this bottle of Medoc?....