"Spanish strike" and Aena's controllers
Yes, there was Spanish flu and now there's Spanish strike. Unlike the French, who go in all-out, transparent strikes just about every week, Spanish workers have another way of showing their dissatisfaction with their employers: low professional standards.
And that's just what us Spanish controllers, all employed by Aena, are doing. We're not giving DCTs or FLs other than the one originally filed simply because we're deeply dissatisfied with our working conditions. For almost a year, Aena's been treating us like s*it, telling all kind of lies in the media about us, and violating even the most basic labor rules that affect their ATC working force. Controllers have responded to that by showing a total lack of concern about professionalism in our day-to-day work. It's what some call the "Spanish strike", that is not a classical-style strike, but just a way of protesting that consists in not caring at all about quality of service. Employers such as Aena who bully their employees commit a great mistake by creating highly-unmotivated workers who learn that caring about being good professionals means nothing to the company administrators. And if those workers are fired, the ones that replace them will do exactly the same thing.
Spanish strike might also be called "resentment" or "discontent".
Honestly, guys (for you pilots and passengers in this forum), I USED TO care about my job and about doing the best I could every day at work. Not so far ago I considered myself a fairly good controller, always willing to learn, to make an effort and to provide a quality public service. But since the moment when my employer began treating me the way it's treating me, I don't give a damn about airplanes, airlines, passengers or flight crews. I PROMISE that I'll purposefully try to give a poor service to every single flight that goes through my hands until Aena gives our rightfully-gained labour rights back to us. Don't expect any help from me! And I'd say that the same applies to most of my workmates in Spanish ATC. What they've done to us is too serious to not have any consequence in the quality of service.
If you wanna avoid delays and feeling frustrated about flying, the best advice I can give is: avoid flying to, from or above Spain until Aena again learns the relationship about ethics, labour rights and motivated employees.
Thanks for reading.
Amigo ATC