350,000 ? LOL
"Spanish air traffic controllers get triple time pay for overtime hours, for instance, and made much of their salary from this, earning an average yearly salary of €350 000."
Spain air controllers returning to work: News24: World: News
Madrid - Spain placed striking air traffic controllers under military authority on Saturday in an unprecedented emergency order and threatened jail terms for those who refuse to go back to work in a bid to get the country's air space back to normal.
Civil aviation agency Aena said hours later that some strikers were back on the job. The wildcat stoppage that began on Friday has largely closed the country's air space and stranded hundreds of thousands of travellers on a busy holiday weekend.
Aena's Twitter feed said Madrid's Barajas airport could be operating at 30% capacity by 16:00 (15:00 GMT).
In announcing the approval of a "state of alarm" after an emergency Cabinet meeting, Deputy Prime Minister Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba accused air traffic controllers of "blackmailing all of our citizens".
He apologised to irate travellers who spent Friday night sleeping at airports on what was supposed to be the start of a long holiday weekend.
Busiest travel weekend
The order placing the air traffic controllers under military authority went into effect about an hour after he spoke. A few hours later, Aena said 11 of 15 controllers stationed at Barcelona's airport have returned to work and an unspecified number are also back on duty at the air control centre that oversees Madrid's Barajas. The official also said one flight has left the Canary Islands for Luxembourg.
But it was far from clear when Spain's airports would be fully back to normal.
The case is reminiscent of a wildcat air traffic controllers strike in 1981 in the US, although the Spanish government has stopped short of simply firing controllers and breaking their union as President Ronald Reagan did at the time.
This is usually one of the busiest travel weekends of the year in Spain because Monday and Wednesday of next week are holidays, and many people plan to take Tuesday off as well.
The air traffic controllers launched their wildcat strike in the culmination of a long-running dispute with the government over working conditions, work schedules and benefits.
Spanish air traffic controllers get triple time pay for overtime hours, for instance, and made much of their salary from this, earning an average yearly salary of €350 000.
Slashing salaries
But in February the government slashed their allowed overtime hours drastically, infuriating the controllers who saw their pay nearly cut in half, although that is still roughly three times what Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero makes. The average yearly salary in Spain is about €20 000.
The final straw seems to have been a decree approved by the Cabinet on Friday under which controllers who miss work shifts because of illness must make up lost hours and can be subject to medical checkups immediately if they call in sick.
Perez Rubalcaba said that in Spain as in other countries, air traffic controllers are a highly paid specialized group because of their unique skills, but in this case Spanish controllers are using their status to defend what he called "intolerable privileges".
The government reacted to the strike by placing Spain's air traffic control centres and towers under military control.
TV footage on Spanish television showed seas of stranded travellers wandering around Spanish airports on Saturday. The flagship carrier Iberia cancelled all its flights in Spain until early on Sunday morning. Air France and Irish airline Ryanair also cancelled all flights to and from Spain.
"It is very bad. Tourists from all over the world are affected," Yair Orgler, 71, of Tel Aviv, told APTN at Madrid's Barajas airport. "The situation is really serious. I hope it will be solved soon because we don't know what to do."
Flights delayed or cancelled
Thousands of Swedish, Norwegian and Danish air passengers were forced to put their holidays on hold and wait around in airport lounges and hotels as southern-bound airlines awaited the traffic chaos in Spain to ease.
Jan Lindqvist, a spokesperson for Swedish airport operator Swedavia, said numerous flights had been delayed or cancelled and two flights had been forced to return to Goteborg's Landvetter airport.
In Amsterdam, Schiphol Airport spokesperson Antoinette Spaans warned travellers that winter weather and strikes in Spain were causing delays and cancellations.
Speaking after the emergency Cabinet meeting, Perez Rubalcaba said of the "state of alarm" would last 15 days, but could be extended if parliament approves it.
The "state of alarm" clause included in Spain's 1978 constitution, passed three years after the death of long-time dictator General Francisco Franco, had never previously been invoked. It was designed to help governments deal with catastrophes such as earthquakes or floods or, as in this case, the collapse of an essential public service like access to air traves.