Spain declares State of Alert after wildcat strikes - Military takes over

Spanish airports shut after wildcat walkout - Military takes over

www.telegraph.co.uk

Military takes over Spanish air space after Spanish minister declares first State of Alert under the 1978 Constitution.

(visit the link for the full news article)

I think something is brewing up this weekend in europe. The spanish prime minister Zapatero has declared a state of emergency over the strikes of the air controllers. Those people who are participating in the strike are under military law now and may be sentenced in a 'accelerated' trial to many years of prison if they don't start working again

www.telegraph.co.uk
(visit the link for the full news article)

Originally posted by TheDeader
... and may be sentenced in a 'accelerated' trial ...

Where does it refer to an "accellerated trial"?

These Spanish air controllers have been walking out for years and me thinks this is finally becoming the centrepiece for military controlled airports across the globe.

You will not travel, you will stay at home, pay your taxes and be good little sheep.

I'm going to say this....who helped draft the "emergency Royal Decree"? Anything to do with a certain foreign government currently being put through the Wikileaks shredder?

reply to post by nerbot


It was on the N-TV (german) news channel. They said the spanish governement threadened the air controllers with prisons sentences up to 10 years through a high-speed process

reply to post by TheDeader


Thanks for clearing that up. Facts are everything.

I wasn't doubting your credibility but just wanted clarification.

I feel sorry for all those passengers AND all the holiday companies and locations that suffer from these selfish air traffic controllers. They aren't gods and it's time a new workforce was trained who do the job because they want to and not for the rediculous salaries (and I don't mean military).

reply to post by TheDeader


lets just hope they stick together and stand firm. it shouldn't just be the airtraffic controllers, everyone needs to be One!

I think its a little bit of a stretch to turn this into a "ooh look , military take over is actualy occurring !" issue. Spains air traffic controlers are notorious for this sort of behaviour, and , with the highest salaries of any ATC in europe (hell maybe the world, although I cannot confirm that) they have the least to worry about , and the least to strike over. When they DO strike, it slashes at the funding of the government, because as we all know, Spain is a tip top tourist destination, and makes a hell of a lot of money from visitors .
With that revenue stream severed, and with the economy of Europe in the broken ,gutted state it has been in, the Spanish authorities cannot afford to have that cash cow rustled out from under them. Hence the installation of these military replacements. Of course at the moment the ATC staff who HAVE showed up to work, will not work under the military , so its causing frictions still. But its a hell of a lot better than allowing a bunch of lazy overpaid do nothings to rob the already burdened tax payers of Spain of the revenue which would ordinarily flow through its airports every day .
When Britains fire fighters strike (usualy with much better reason I might add) our military provide temporary replacements, when of course they have the men to spare. I see very little difference between these situations, aside from the emergancy aspect of firefighting, and the largely leisure based aspects of commercial aviation.
Politicaly , these things may as well be the same , since having no ATC would cause genuine damage to Spain at a time when it, and the rest of Europe are already in pretty dire straights financialy, and having no fire service would be damaging to Britain, because unchecked fires dont just go out on thier own, and left to thier own devices would consume far more property and life than they do under the watchful and masterful hand of our fire fighting personel.

Power to the people. Screw the government! Fascists! And they are paid nowhere near 1 million euro's! That is a lie. Now it's work by gunpoint.

aaaah imagine if they sent all the AT controllers to prison, then they would have to get new people train them up to become AT controllers. Then the new controllers who will have no expierence in air traffic will panic if something goes wrong. Interesting though

The air traffic control here in Spain earn.......320,000 euros a year.
Now they want to work menos hours dor the money, There are double the number of air traffic control in Spain then there are in the UK and the UK have some of the busiest airports in the world.

The lazy bastards want to earn nearly half a million a year and work less than 8 hours a day???

Now they've all mysteriousy gone on sick leave so the airports and travellers suffer, with the aim of arm twisting the government into giving in.
The problem is the arm twisting hasnt worked and now the lazy bastards hopefully will find themselves out of a job come next week.