Vinrouge the funny thing is that its not the IMF knocking on the Irish , Spanish or Portugeese door but dear old Merkel looking to ensure the greedy German banks dont have to write off the loans they made, out of greed . That is the foundation of the problem down here and in Ireland. The best thing we could do for ourselves is tell you guys to shove it and go back to the peseta , punt and Drachma and just devalue like as always was done and leave you holding your precious euro,, its just like a stone around our knecks now.
The incompetence of the Spanish government managing this along with an agenda is staggering yet people like yourself are so easily stirred as part of the mob and its sad that a suppossed well paid professional like yourself is baying for blood. 2 weeks ago they realised the controllers were out of hours in an agreement made 2 months ago and yesterday they sent a letter to everbody telling them their hours were increased and they had no choice..brookfields and p2f are treated better .. its not all about money from the atc at least and even if it is so what .. as others have said , the pilots would not be paying to fly now if they had stood up for themselves. State medical surgeons are paid just as much, should there money be cut , are people calling for it to be cut.. are they part of the " priveligiado " ? ..I mean all they do is " routine " surgery .. its not complicated...all you need is a knife.. Blanco and Zapaterro dont want the dispute solved, their objective is not cost savings for the state .. they want the union gone so they may sell AENA at a higher price to their buddys for a donation to the party coffers no doubt. They are of course not falling on their own sword giving themselves a cut of 5%.
I certainly agree that the controllers have not been entirely logical in this but If i were pushed and poked with laws being passed monthly to tell me what my new employment contract is and previous agreements being rowed in I would be none to happy . no holidays , forced overtime , no letup in pressure ,, I can see how I would snap... Nor would I be happy to work under armed gaurd with my doctors advice about fitness ignored and no ability to resign as it amounts to treason ( in fact controllers here cant resign and could not without severe penalty before the state of emergency was declared but now quitting is " treason " ... harks back to darker days in europe and the east.
How sad it is that the state is managing to turn its citizens on each other to take care of the german banks.
Somebody asked if it safe to fly here at christmas time. Based on a quick conversation today with a controller in Torejon I would book with an airline that will help you change your dates or flights if its cancelled ( ie not ryanair etc . who just give you a refund and leave you to fend for yourself ). This isnt over by a longshot and from what I understand especially in winter weather things can be made run very slow indeed. There is plenty of problems in the pipeline yet.
Should Strike be illegal.. no of course not . quite frankly unless your management dont be so short sighted.. if you do not have the right to strike then you end up with a dicator state , like say North Korea. It has been impossible to have an all out strike in many areas of the spanish workforce for some time now , from Metro drivers to ATC. Basically as things stand in most sectors down here you can strike so long as it doesnt inconvenience anybody, especially in sectors the state wishes to sell such as metro , rail and air. The end game in the ponzi scheme is near for everbody yet everybody follows the pied piper whilst singing songs of praise.
Last edited by paidworker; 5th Dec 2010 at 00:27.