White Rose,
I take it therefore that your request for a move to LATCC or Swanwick has been on the table for some considerable time then due to the travelling distance to see your parents and that your partner getting a job down here is not a problem. Or is it that you have a very nice way of life thank-you that mustn't be disturbed. Well get into the real world. You have, as an ATCO in NATS as near to a job for life as it is possible to get nowadays and the employer can't afford to continue with 4 ATC centres in the UK. In order to maintain your T&Cs they have made a corporate long term decision-just as they did at LATCC.
As for the ATSA grade there will always be a need for a small number within the operation probably highly skilled and also highly paid but we have to face it that technology is going to take over the tasks,even the ATCO one eventually and redundancies will be inevitable in all grades. It's just the timescales which are different.
You are grasping at straws to say the Spanish system is not up to the job without seeing it and properly evaluating it and how long would you like it delayed by-just until you can retire and then stuff everyone else??????
Let's face it the staff in NATS missed the boat 5 years ago when PPP was first muted and your volunteer union reps were lobbying against it but what did we as a workforce do to fight it,NOTHING.
We are now reaping the rewards of that inaction as a commercial attitude is introduced into the company. There are plenty of opportunities outside of NATS for those who really want to go but for those of us who don't/can't then we have to make the best of it-as 500 already have moving to LACC and the staff from OKS are having to do now. What makes MACC so different????