More air-traffic control strikes in July
Wednesday, July 1, 2015 @ 1:31 PM
AIR-TRAFFIC controllers across Spain have planned another partial strike next month in light of their governing body, Enaire's refusal to lift sanctions on the 61 of them who closed the country's air-space in December 2010.
They will down tools between 10.00hrs and 13.00hrs on Saturday, July 11 and Saturday, July 25, and between 17.00hrs and 20.00hrs on Sunday, July 12 and Sunday, July 26.
This follows on from four days of strikes in June, where they downed tools during both time slots – but the impact on flights turned out to be minimal with only a small number of delays of up to 20 or 30 minutes.
Air-traffic controllers consider their right to strike was breached in December 2010 when, in order to prevent them from abandoning their posts, the then president José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero declared a 'state of emergency' – a lower level of public warning than a curfew or a siege, which would be used during times of armed conflict.
But 61 of them in Barcelona and one in Santiago de Compostela, Galicia, went ahead anyway, leaving the control towers unmanned and forcing flight authorities to close Spain's air-space.
Read more at thinkSPAIN.com