And that's precisely why they have been able, through abuse of their dominant position, to engineer a gilded lifestyle of exorbitant pay for very little work. No wonder they are fighting tooth and nail to preserve the status quo - not just the French, see the latest ETF press release.

Oh, please, comparing ACCs with Victorian mill houses. Go and insult somebody else's intelligence, don't pick on mine.

ATCOs is not a vital job, it's important but it's not like doctors, police, fireman or search and rescue, it's only for the pleasure of people to fly on holiday or receive fresh fish everyday, it's just for the lazy community that we are becoming. Reading that us a vital service makes me laugh, it's true but makes no sense talking about no right of strike or any disruption, my father, my grandfather fighter a lot to gain that rights we are not given up because of commercial/pleasure reasons. I think thanks to this crisis young people understood the importance of fight for their rights and with the help of social media we can do it stronger.

SSK we can't compare but we can't bring back those days for ever reason, let's stop to cut cost at people expenses, why we had to save billions of money for the banks? Why we pay millions for politics that are overpaid and make only disasters? I can also suggest to jeopardize politics all over Europe and let's keep a performance of all the government and than decide to let Germany politics to govern all Europe, do you think politics will accept or they will strike against?

As recently as two years ago, Spanish ATC staff were forced to sit in positions and work overtime practically at gunpoint. I don't think the Victorian millhouse metaphor is all that removed in that particular instance.

This thread suffers from two things; a distinct language barrier on part of the supporters of the industrial action, and staggering misinformation on part of its detractors. Like that gentleman earlier, attempting to liken the rationalization of the Euro airspace to the deregulation of the UK manufacturing industry..there is a misguided analogy if you want one. What the EC wants is rationalization, not liberalization, as many on here seem to freely conflate. I.e. to make the european ATC more like it is stateside, fewer and bigger ACC sectors with interoperable infrastructure, leading to straighter routings and less handovers, who could object to that. Unfortunately it is now becoming obvious that local mindset governments have been paying lip service to SES while at the same time protecting national interests which run contrary to the whole underlying idea. France has become the testing block and so far everything points the direction of business as usual. SES2+ we hardly knew ye, but already looking forward to the next iteration.

Yup. Resign.

Stop thinking in the past. There is a big competitive job market out there. If you don't like the conditions in the job that you're in, go and get another job. If you can't find one that is better, then you're in the best job that's available to you, so grin and bear it!

Best for French ATC would be for it to be split up into different regions as entirely different employers and the employees to get a share out of the money made from the traffic 'carried'. With that if one region decided to go on strike (e.g. Bordeaux), everyone could route through the other regions (e.g. Marseille) instead and the ATCs there could earn more out of the folly of their colleagues in the striking sector!

ATC Watcher what's your view on the latest from MUAC? Closure in 10 years?

@ LonMore

Havent they been saying that for the last 30yrs!! :O

MUAC will not close (theres a brand new 5M euro building going up in the car park right now, just for starters).

I think theres a good chance that we might be called something other than Eurocontrol in the next few years though.

Only because we have a competitive market we have to agree with everything is done?!?! What a :mad:! In Greece they just decided yesterday to cancel the public television and radio and fire 2700 people! They have to go home and just say thank you for your opportunity to get a new job?! Why are we becoming all so selfish and not looking around us! Democracy is the only way we can reduce the gap between rich and poor people so here we are talking about rights! About the changes I'm more than agree on find a solution for the rationalisation of the infrastructure, common software and routes, airspace but the fundamental aspect is that people must be sure of the job, it's very important that you can work in front of the radar without the pressure of performance, of incertainity about future or work for many hours, in this job can't work because of the safety aspects involved, than you can change everything, but always listening to the needs of the people.

Talking of Greece....
 

Lon More : about Maastricht closing in 10 years, I do not believe that it will happen, not within the 20 years I would say. After ? Who knows?

Main reasons, for me ( I am just giving you my educated opinion ) are many .
first , one of the players ( belgocontrol ) is nearly bankrup and in no position to raise the capital needed to take over back their upper airspace. Even Luxemburg is looking at taking back their airspace ( until FL 245) from them.
.
Next, the main proponents of Maastricht closure and transfer back to Germany have retired from DFS last year and the new guys are far more cautious . The strict rethoric is gone at least.

Then , surprisingly , the tone and words used in the joint letter sent by transports ministers of France and Germany to Commissionner Kallas, indicate clearly that the current cooperative approach and retaining what we have institutionally is , for the time beeing at least, desirable. In other words, we build around what we have, we then look what we can change.

Lastly , the current downfall of traffic , combined with the constant pressure to reduce route charges is not very compatible with the huge costs of closing maastricht and transfering ( i.e building) new facilities to accomodate the sectors and staff.
I think, like many that the name might change , Eurocontrol might pull out ( not so sure of that , but a possibility) , some divisons might shrink or disappear,but the ATC part will most probably remain in Maastricht .

Thanks, Philippe - that was more or less what I thought but got a mail from TUEM recently which puzzled me.
BeT they've been saying that since 1970 at least !!

I'm not on strike but French ATC has now cost me about €1500 in lost wages because I only get paid if I fly. Naturally, despite being on strike, these ladies and gentlemen will still get paid.

A pity that European airline aircrew didn't take the same level of action over the absurd nonsense of EASA part-FCL and its 'one size fits all' inflexibility...:ugh:

The only people benefitting from EASA are its fat cat €urocrats with their tax-free salaries.

Industrial action 11, 12, 13th June
 

You can't really blame French ATC for being on a contract that only pays when you fly.

Rollnloop

Just shows you how much you know about ATC. The holding situation at Heathrow has very little to do with inefficiency of UK ATC.

But everyone says how good contract flying is. This is what happens if you let Ryanair and similar have their ways!!
You signed for it!!

The French call these strikes every summer. They just need an excuse to call them.

The Greek version of the Brit's BBC was closed as it employed circa 3,000 people to do the work of circa 300, and the "jobs" were "owned" by families. A bit like Athens taxi driver licenses. These sorts of nonsense need to end before Greece gets better.

Spanish ATCOs working at gunpoint??? For their money, I, too, would work at gunpoint. They make the Brit ATCO TUs look like useless plonkers. (And I do not think that the nice folk from Prospect are useless plonkers)

Trossie wrote:
I wouldn't knock it too hard. Two of the worst bits of ATC I have ever seen were perpetrated by Brits. One could best be described as criminal and lead to the controller being fired. The other was pure bloody-mindedness by someone who didn't want to be working on Christmas Day.

I love the French atc.
Enter France, go straight to half way down the country if not straight to the Spanish border!!
Beats the hell out of left 10, right 10, left 5, right 5.

( joke!! Before u get on my case I know how busy the uk, London are!! They are excellent, even a joke or two.
Still love the French way, arrivals into CDG are a little different, ie, via the Belgium border!!)


Of course this all depends if they are at work!!

The SSK,
Obviously...
As I'm not an expert in porky pies, I'll refrain from making comments on usually well-informed ATC specialists.

However, I dare say I'm fed up with misinformation !

Being a French air traffic controller in an ACC, I work around 100 days per year.... and 25 nights. Each being 10 hours long (average).
I earn 6,500€ per month (minus 25% income taxes, which is my problem as French citizen) after 22 years in the job and I'll never hit a 2 figures K€.

Now, you can say you got the information from a particularly well-informed ATC professional and start comment knowingly.

Anyway, French controllers' wages were not the issue, as this industrial action was part of a pan-european outcry.