LayLoLay:
"What about the AENA management in all this? They are avoiding the flak very professionally it seems."
Which cannot be said about Spanish ATC with their surprise walkout.
Andrijander:
"But I've heard government had that one covered by yet another decree that would not allow them to resign."
That's speculation, in my book.
"Wikileaks just proved that justice in Spain can go left or right depending on who's in charge."
If there's anything Wikileaks has learned us, then it surely is how a relative small number of people can have the whole world 'by their balls'.
"In this matter it's puzzling to see how a judge was surprisingly quick to rule that the decrease in salary of controllers was legal, but then a month later judges ruled that decreasing the salaries of judges wasn't legal (same situation, different government employees)."
Apples and oranges.
"Another thing to know from Spain: 20% unemployment means there is a huge amount of people not declaring their income. Sure, there's a lot of people not having income and suffering lots, but not 20% by far. I grew up there."
You deny its 20% yet you fail to provide a credible alternative figure, let alone a source.
Microburst2002
"The cause of this unprecedented situation is the "solution" that the spanish government gave to the problem of the Spanish ATC."
It is not unprecedented as Spanish ATC, though on a smaller scale, has previously opted to simply not turn up for work over alleged medical reasons or because they claim to have run out of overtime hours. Ie, Barcelona in July (while AENA was in negotiations with their union) and a couple of days ago in Galicia.
And the interpretation of the new overtime hours rule, which was accepted by a government decree yesterday just a couple of hours before the massive walkout, is the issue here. Not passenger-safety as some now claim.
"If you make a royal decree, jumping above all laws and previous agreements between AENA and the ATCOs..."
That's because AENA and the ATCO's union failed to reach an agreement, despite numerous attempts. Not reaching an agreement does NOT give them a right to deny to perform their job, certainly not en masse as we saw yesterday, as this creates massive chaos and inconvenience to thousands of people, as we saw yesterday and still today.
"So if I dropped a bomb on my neighbours house (he is a pain in the neck, believe me...) Would anyone be surprised if he droped another one on mine?"
A better analogy would be that your neighbour, in retaliation, dropped a bomb on the entire city just to get even with you. Because that is what happened yesterday.
transilvana:
"Goverment new that this was going to happen at least 2 weeks ago, at least 10 months ago!!!"
The government knew that Spanish ATCO's were not happy with the new rules, what they did not know, nor could foresee, is the grave and irresponsible act of a massive walkout yesterday. Don't blame THAT on the government, no matter how much you despise them.
In this regard it should be pointed out that even Spanish right wing media which have a long history of opposing and criticizing virtually anything "the socialists" do, now support them. Ultra right wing Libertaddigital, usually busy thinking up conspiracy theories on Prime Minister Zapatero personally planning the Madrid train bombings, or some another stupidity along that line, now actually not only backs the government's actions (very likely for the very first time!), it also lays the blame solely with Spanish ATC. [
Source in Spanish ]. Today's editorials of other traditionally right leaning Spanish media (ABC, El Mundo) have very similar opinions on the issue.