Spanish government prepares to use military against air traffic controllers
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Spanish government prepares to use military against air traffic controllers
Rumors say that 41 military air traffic controllers are allready being trained.
Spanish government prepares to use military against air traffic controllers
Spanish government prepares to use military against air traffic controllers
By Paul Stuart
10 August 2010
Air traffic controllers at the state-run Aeropuertos Españoles y Navegación Aérea (AENA) have voted 98 percent in favour of industrial action against a ferocious assault by the Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party (PSOE) government of Prime Minister José Luis Zapatero.
However, even before the ballot, the air traffic controllers union (USCA) is seeking to restrict the struggle in advance to a series of token strikes and provide AENA with a 10-day advance notice of dates.
In February the government imposed by decree a 40 percent wage cut on the controllers. According to reports it is now imposing an increase in yearly hours’ commitment from 1,000 to 1,600 and, despite rising levels of illness, a reduction in rest periods.
Recently, government officials accused controllers on sick leave of organising an illegal strike. Development Minister José Blanco threatened to fire the staff, off sick from work due to severe stress and exhaustion, who refused to return to work after he ordered fresh drumhead medical exams. Blanco threatened, “If claims are false then they are breaking the law, which means we can take legal action that may result in them losing their jobs”. According to USCA, workers with serious medical conditions are being pressured, some on tranquilizers, back to work with transport organised by AENA.
Under European Union (EU) direction the PSOE is engaged in one provocation after another against air traffic controllers to smash up opposition to restructuring and privatisation. With unashamed hypocrisy, it is using the low wages imposed on the rest of the population to slash controllers’ wages. Blanco has asserted that it was “intolerable for the government to pay millionaire salaries to civil servants while seeking austerity from the rest of the Spanish people”.
Anticipating strike action Blanco is now training military personnel to replace civilian control staff in a fast-track exercise. He did not specify when they would be used, but said they would be “seen”. According to one report Mariano Casado, who heads the union representing Spanish military air controllers, has already committed his members to future strike-breaking activities stating the military “had the ability” to handle civil aviation but needed time to adapt.
Blanco is now in negotiations with the defence ministry to prepare the conditions to deploy air force personnel into civilian control towers using the 2003 Air Security Law brought in by the right-wing Popular Party (PP) government of José María Aznar. Blanco said, “In exceptional situations we will employ aerial military controllers to guarantee aviation traffic in our country”.
This is not an isolated threat. Last month the PP administration in Madrid threatened to deploy troops to maintain Metro services after workers struck against a 5 percent pay cut and voted to reject minimum service agreements between unions and Metro management. Ignacio González, the vice-chair of the Popular Party (the political heirs of dictator General Francisco Franco) who runs the Madrid regional government, threatened that he is “not going to discard the option” of the military taking control of Madrid’s Metro system.
This threat is unprecedented in post-fascist Spain and could not have been issued without first consulting with social democratic ministers. It would have meant tens of thousands of troops deployed all over the capital. In the face of a threatened military intervention the Metro trade unions immediately called off the strike, entered negotiations and imposed the 5 percent cut through the back door. It is the second social democratic government in Europe to turn to the military to impose austerity. In Greece the PASOK government recently deployed troops and riot squads against truck drivers.
It is the latest assault in an ongoing battle against air traffic controllers, who one minister described as having “incomprehensible privileges”. After their wages had been cut by up to 40 percent, Blanco ranted, “They cannot say they are badly paid when many earn two and a half times more than the doctor who signed their sick note.” He added with undisguised class hatred, “Last year they received triple pay for overtime, which seemed to ease both their stress and their anxiety”.
This is from a government that has handed over billions of euros to a small layer of financial aristocrats whilst impoverishing the working class. What Blanco did not explain was that controllers were offered triple time to induce them into working up to 600 extra hours annually, in order to maintain airline services in the busy holiday season. Controllers are now starting to suffer the consequences. Union officials reported that controllers had been in many cases working continuously for up to 28 days.
As sick levels began to cause minor delays on air services, Blanco launched a public attack accusing workers of launching an “illegal” sick strike as part of an “orchestrated campaign” to disrupt air traffic. He put increased sickness down not to a vast increase in the workload but to psychological weakness amongst the workers. He asserted, “Most cases were put down to stress and anxiety...which are not compatible with this line of work. To be an air traffic controller it is not enough to have a high level of English, but also to be psychologically strong”.
Blanco’s department is creating a new set of tests to examine the psychological capabilities of staff, a blatant mechanism for intimidation and mass sackings. Blanco is also examining sickness rules to stop workers ringing in sick just before they are due to start work, threatening that if they do so in the future it may be used to fire them.
For ANEA and the social democrats, repression is the only “contingency” plan for such a common occurrence. Blanco immediately demanded the cabinet speed up the privatisation of air traffic control and if necessary impose it through a legal decree. The government passed a decree on July 23 providing private operators the legal framework to bid for contracts to run Spanish airports.
Threats of military intervention against workers’ struggles represent the first efforts to deploy the military since the end of the Franco dictatorship and the 1981 attempted coup, when PSOE ministers were targeted by former fascist officers. At the time, Felipe Gonzáles, who became PSOE prime minster in 1982, was led away at gunpoint along with Communist Party leader Santiago Carrillo.
Crucially, however, the new threat of the re-imposition of military rule comes not from former fascists but from within the PSOE, to be used directly against the working class.
The trade unions are playing their part in a concerted effort to condition the population to consider troops deployed against the working class as a normal occurrence. They do this by turning workers’ attention towards secondary questions, such as challenging the health and safety implications of using military controllers, in order to divert from the grave implications of a social democratic government preparing to deploy troops against the working class.
This was summed up in the response of Gustavo Barba, leader of the pilots’ trade union COPAC, who said the use of military controllers would not have “the same capacity and the same levels of security”.
USCA, instead of withdrawing from negotiations in protest, have intensified negotiations with AENA. USCA President Camilo Cesa downplayed the implications of the imminent deployment of military personnel, stating, “We think this decision is rushed because (the military) do not have the same training as us, and there are clear differences between their work and ours”.
Cesa’s remarks were framed as an appeal to the PSOE to allow time and space for the union leadership to defeat the struggle and impose a deal to their liking. Cesa stated that over half of a new agreement, involving the “framework” laid down by the government and the EU, had already been agreed with AENA.
The unions and the government are assisted in this by the Izquierda Unida(IU, United Left). The IU was founded by the Spanish Communist Party in 1986 as part of its efforts to preserve the political stranglehold of the PSOE and the trade union bureaucracy over the working class. Thus, while mouthing a few oppositional phrases against the PSOE from time to time, it is hostile to any political struggle against the government.
The IU website has maintained almost total silence on the PSOE’s threat to deploy military forces. There has been no statement urging opposition from the IU’s senior trade union officials in the Comisiones Obreras (CC.OO, workers commissions) federation or the PSOE aligned Unión General del Trabajo (UGT, General Workers Union).
During a congressional debate, IU deputy Gaspar Llamazares had the opportunity to urge an offensive by the working class against the PSOE government and the financial elite they serve. Instead he sought to instil political prostration and acquiescence, remarking, “It scares me because some day decree power can be used against me or the rest of the country’s workforce”.
Spanish government prepares to use military against air traffic controllers
Spanish government prepares to use military against air traffic controllers
By Paul Stuart
10 August 2010
Air traffic controllers at the state-run Aeropuertos Españoles y Navegación Aérea (AENA) have voted 98 percent in favour of industrial action against a ferocious assault by the Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party (PSOE) government of Prime Minister José Luis Zapatero.
However, even before the ballot, the air traffic controllers union (USCA) is seeking to restrict the struggle in advance to a series of token strikes and provide AENA with a 10-day advance notice of dates.
In February the government imposed by decree a 40 percent wage cut on the controllers. According to reports it is now imposing an increase in yearly hours’ commitment from 1,000 to 1,600 and, despite rising levels of illness, a reduction in rest periods.
Recently, government officials accused controllers on sick leave of organising an illegal strike. Development Minister José Blanco threatened to fire the staff, off sick from work due to severe stress and exhaustion, who refused to return to work after he ordered fresh drumhead medical exams. Blanco threatened, “If claims are false then they are breaking the law, which means we can take legal action that may result in them losing their jobs”. According to USCA, workers with serious medical conditions are being pressured, some on tranquilizers, back to work with transport organised by AENA.
Under European Union (EU) direction the PSOE is engaged in one provocation after another against air traffic controllers to smash up opposition to restructuring and privatisation. With unashamed hypocrisy, it is using the low wages imposed on the rest of the population to slash controllers’ wages. Blanco has asserted that it was “intolerable for the government to pay millionaire salaries to civil servants while seeking austerity from the rest of the Spanish people”.
Anticipating strike action Blanco is now training military personnel to replace civilian control staff in a fast-track exercise. He did not specify when they would be used, but said they would be “seen”. According to one report Mariano Casado, who heads the union representing Spanish military air controllers, has already committed his members to future strike-breaking activities stating the military “had the ability” to handle civil aviation but needed time to adapt.
Blanco is now in negotiations with the defence ministry to prepare the conditions to deploy air force personnel into civilian control towers using the 2003 Air Security Law brought in by the right-wing Popular Party (PP) government of José María Aznar. Blanco said, “In exceptional situations we will employ aerial military controllers to guarantee aviation traffic in our country”.
This is not an isolated threat. Last month the PP administration in Madrid threatened to deploy troops to maintain Metro services after workers struck against a 5 percent pay cut and voted to reject minimum service agreements between unions and Metro management. Ignacio González, the vice-chair of the Popular Party (the political heirs of dictator General Francisco Franco) who runs the Madrid regional government, threatened that he is “not going to discard the option” of the military taking control of Madrid’s Metro system.
This threat is unprecedented in post-fascist Spain and could not have been issued without first consulting with social democratic ministers. It would have meant tens of thousands of troops deployed all over the capital. In the face of a threatened military intervention the Metro trade unions immediately called off the strike, entered negotiations and imposed the 5 percent cut through the back door. It is the second social democratic government in Europe to turn to the military to impose austerity. In Greece the PASOK government recently deployed troops and riot squads against truck drivers.
It is the latest assault in an ongoing battle against air traffic controllers, who one minister described as having “incomprehensible privileges”. After their wages had been cut by up to 40 percent, Blanco ranted, “They cannot say they are badly paid when many earn two and a half times more than the doctor who signed their sick note.” He added with undisguised class hatred, “Last year they received triple pay for overtime, which seemed to ease both their stress and their anxiety”.
This is from a government that has handed over billions of euros to a small layer of financial aristocrats whilst impoverishing the working class. What Blanco did not explain was that controllers were offered triple time to induce them into working up to 600 extra hours annually, in order to maintain airline services in the busy holiday season. Controllers are now starting to suffer the consequences. Union officials reported that controllers had been in many cases working continuously for up to 28 days.
As sick levels began to cause minor delays on air services, Blanco launched a public attack accusing workers of launching an “illegal” sick strike as part of an “orchestrated campaign” to disrupt air traffic. He put increased sickness down not to a vast increase in the workload but to psychological weakness amongst the workers. He asserted, “Most cases were put down to stress and anxiety...which are not compatible with this line of work. To be an air traffic controller it is not enough to have a high level of English, but also to be psychologically strong”.
Blanco’s department is creating a new set of tests to examine the psychological capabilities of staff, a blatant mechanism for intimidation and mass sackings. Blanco is also examining sickness rules to stop workers ringing in sick just before they are due to start work, threatening that if they do so in the future it may be used to fire them.
For ANEA and the social democrats, repression is the only “contingency” plan for such a common occurrence. Blanco immediately demanded the cabinet speed up the privatisation of air traffic control and if necessary impose it through a legal decree. The government passed a decree on July 23 providing private operators the legal framework to bid for contracts to run Spanish airports.
Threats of military intervention against workers’ struggles represent the first efforts to deploy the military since the end of the Franco dictatorship and the 1981 attempted coup, when PSOE ministers were targeted by former fascist officers. At the time, Felipe Gonzáles, who became PSOE prime minster in 1982, was led away at gunpoint along with Communist Party leader Santiago Carrillo.
Crucially, however, the new threat of the re-imposition of military rule comes not from former fascists but from within the PSOE, to be used directly against the working class.
The trade unions are playing their part in a concerted effort to condition the population to consider troops deployed against the working class as a normal occurrence. They do this by turning workers’ attention towards secondary questions, such as challenging the health and safety implications of using military controllers, in order to divert from the grave implications of a social democratic government preparing to deploy troops against the working class.
This was summed up in the response of Gustavo Barba, leader of the pilots’ trade union COPAC, who said the use of military controllers would not have “the same capacity and the same levels of security”.
USCA, instead of withdrawing from negotiations in protest, have intensified negotiations with AENA. USCA President Camilo Cesa downplayed the implications of the imminent deployment of military personnel, stating, “We think this decision is rushed because (the military) do not have the same training as us, and there are clear differences between their work and ours”.
Cesa’s remarks were framed as an appeal to the PSOE to allow time and space for the union leadership to defeat the struggle and impose a deal to their liking. Cesa stated that over half of a new agreement, involving the “framework” laid down by the government and the EU, had already been agreed with AENA.
The unions and the government are assisted in this by the Izquierda Unida(IU, United Left). The IU was founded by the Spanish Communist Party in 1986 as part of its efforts to preserve the political stranglehold of the PSOE and the trade union bureaucracy over the working class. Thus, while mouthing a few oppositional phrases against the PSOE from time to time, it is hostile to any political struggle against the government.
The IU website has maintained almost total silence on the PSOE’s threat to deploy military forces. There has been no statement urging opposition from the IU’s senior trade union officials in the Comisiones Obreras (CC.OO, workers commissions) federation or the PSOE aligned Unión General del Trabajo (UGT, General Workers Union).
During a congressional debate, IU deputy Gaspar Llamazares had the opportunity to urge an offensive by the working class against the PSOE government and the financial elite they serve. Instead he sought to instil political prostration and acquiescence, remarking, “It scares me because some day decree power can be used against me or the rest of the country’s workforce”.
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I would see that as 37 years back in aviation history. I hope it wouldn't end in the same way.
Some people will never learn anything from other's mistakes. Sad in aviation's world.
Would military controllers have a valid GAT control license ?
If not, would I have to co-ordinate anything with them (ACCs) ?
How come they can train in a few days when a full qualification usually takes months or years ?
Some people will never learn anything from other's mistakes. Sad in aviation's world.
Would military controllers have a valid GAT control license ?
If not, would I have to co-ordinate anything with them (ACCs) ?
How come they can train in a few days when a full qualification usually takes months or years ?
Last edited by BrATCO; 12th Aug 2010 at 19:55.
If civil air space is taken over by military controllers my advice is to stay well away from Spain. It will be an accident waiting to happen. Furthermore, you will experience significantly more delays than you do now.
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Anyone - what is the latest on the Spanish ATC strike and... how would it affect private VFR flights through Spain ??? Oh and the orginal article was excellent by the way and I would fully support the controllers in Spain in their struggle- and gladly lose my hoiliday in the process! Just let me know first haha 
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My holiday is on!!!!
Madrid.- Tras cinco meses de conflicto y con una amenaza de huelga, la Unión Sindical de Controladores Aéreos (USCA) y Aeropuertos Españoles y Navegación Aérea (AENA) han llegado a un principio de acuerdo.
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Chumpitaz, don't worry about your holidays. We announced a few days ago that we wouldn't go to strike on august and looks like we're just about to reach an agreement (just on very basic issues, in order to continue negotiating, still a long way to go...). Hope you enjoy your flying-holidays in Spain 
However, the threat of using military controllers is there to be used in the future, under "exceptional circumstances" (???) as the minister says.
Can't really answer your questions because all we know is what the minister has said on the media. Nothing was said about issuing them GAT control licenses. About the training, initially he said that military controllers could substitute us with "just one day of training" 
(we must be really bad controllers...). However, later he had to rectify and mentioned "a few weeks". He always spoke about TWRs, not ACCs (but you all know that for the media we all work in TWRs, ACCs don't exist).
I wonder too... 
However, the threat of using military controllers is there to be used in the future, under "exceptional circumstances" (???) as the minister says.
Would military controllers have a valid GAT control license ?
If not, would I have to co-ordinate anything with them (ACCs) ?
How come they can train in a few days when a full qualification usually takes months or years ?
If not, would I have to co-ordinate anything with them (ACCs) ?
How come they can train in a few days when a full qualification usually takes months or years ?
(we must be really bad controllers...). However, later he had to rectify and mentioned "a few weeks". He always spoke about TWRs, not ACCs (but you all know that for the media we all work in TWRs, ACCs don't exist).
I wonder about the legal liability of handing over to an unlicensed controller?
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Hi guys,
This has been our government's M.O. Menacing and insulting us all over the media.
They wanted us to call for a strike so they could justify the use of an "impartial" referee to dictate our new T&Cs.
Anyway, it's over but this, I'm afraid, is just a temporary truce, not a longlasting peace.
We are too bitter and battered to easily forget and forgive what they have done to us.
And, I hope I'm wrong, I'm afraid they are planning on cutting costs everywhere else in Europe whatever the means needed.
Maybe it's time to unite across borders.
Cheers.
This has been our government's M.O. Menacing and insulting us all over the media.
They wanted us to call for a strike so they could justify the use of an "impartial" referee to dictate our new T&Cs.
Anyway, it's over but this, I'm afraid, is just a temporary truce, not a longlasting peace.
We are too bitter and battered to easily forget and forgive what they have done to us.
And, I hope I'm wrong, I'm afraid they are planning on cutting costs everywhere else in Europe whatever the means needed.
Maybe it's time to unite across borders.
Cheers.
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According to the Spanish press, the controllers union and AENA have reached agreement and the agreement will be put top the controllers in the next 7 days.
Hope it works out for you guys.
Hope it works out for you guys.
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Yeah, I hope we do accept the agreement too. As expected, it's not great, but it's not as bad as I had imagined.
It involves 1500+ yearly hours (up to a maximum of 1750!), which is quite a lot, but that amount is to be decreased every year to reach 1350h in 2013, which is the average in the top 5 european ANSPs.
Cheers.
It involves 1500+ yearly hours (up to a maximum of 1750!), which is quite a lot, but that amount is to be decreased every year to reach 1350h in 2013, which is the average in the top 5 european ANSPs.
Cheers.
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Seem to remember that Margaret Thatcher tried the same with the military when UK ATCOs took strike action in the 80s(?).
To her surprise she was informed by the civil ATCOs that she was welcome to bring in the Mil but the following caveats would apply:
1. Military controllers do not have civil licences.
2. as a consequence the insurance companies would not cover the risk
3. When the first airhit occurs, as it indubitably would, the buck stops with her
and last but not least,
it would require an act of parliament to override the Regulatory Authority and allow said Military operations.
She backed down.
However, despite the risks involved a well known UK Tour company's flight wing flew in uncontrolled airspace under the UIR to the UK/French FIR boundary and then free called for a joining clearance from either Brest or Paris North as applicable.
Good luck
To her surprise she was informed by the civil ATCOs that she was welcome to bring in the Mil but the following caveats would apply:
1. Military controllers do not have civil licences.
2. as a consequence the insurance companies would not cover the risk
3. When the first airhit occurs, as it indubitably would, the buck stops with her
and last but not least,
it would require an act of parliament to override the Regulatory Authority and allow said Military operations.
She backed down.
However, despite the risks involved a well known UK Tour company's flight wing flew in uncontrolled airspace under the UIR to the UK/French FIR boundary and then free called for a joining clearance from either Brest or Paris North as applicable.
Good luck
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A summary in yesterday's Las Provincias said that the Spanish Government have agreed to a shift system of four days on - two days off and that all overtime will be voluntary.
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A summary in yesterday's Las Provincias said that the Spanish Government have agreed to a shift system of four days on - two days off and that all overtime will be voluntary.
