Spanish government prepares to use military scabs against air traffic controllers

[Hannah Bell]

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.

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.

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.

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2010/aug2010/spai-a10.shtml

[KILL THE WISE ONE]

1. sounds like ronald regan

[MajorChode]

3. Similar, but there are differences

PATCO (the union who represented ATC at the time) was one of only two unions who endorsed Raygun's presiduncy.

Poetic, no?

[MajorChode]

2. Much (if not most) of European ATC is already privatized

In 2002 a private Swiss company controller who had all of 3 aircraft under his control managed to run two of them in to each other.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2002_%C3%9Cberlingen_mid-air_collision

In contrast, the US has a 100% government run ATC which is the safest and most efficient in the world.

Edit:
There is some ATC that is privatized in the US now that I think about it, but only at very low level airports.

[The Northerner]

4. The Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party is doing this?

Aren't they supposed to be pro-union and progressive?

[MajorChode]

5. Kinda like the Republicans are supposed to be conservative

It ain't always so. Despite the name, workers' rights kinda takes a back burner sometimes.

[LooseWilly]

7. Sounds like someone's got a case of the "supposed to's"...

Obviously it is "supposed to" ... but as Clinton, Blair, Brown, and Obama have shown... "supposed to" loyalties of political parties to labor interests are now all sacrificeable in the interest of pandering to suburbanite/suburbanite-equivalent constituencies of "swing voters".

Witness:

The Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (Spanish: Partido Socialista Obrero Español, pronounced ; PSOE pronounced ) is the ruling political party in Spain and the second oldest, exceeded only by the Partido Carlista, founded in 1833. It identifies itself as a centre-left, social-democratic, democratic socialist and progressivist party.<1>

It has had strong ties with the Unión General de Trabajadores, a Spanish trade union. For decades, UGT membership was a requirement for PSOE membership. During the 1980s, though, UGT criticised the economic policies of the PSOE, even calling for a general strike on December 14, 1988.<1>

...

Sounds like this is becoming a tradition in Spain as well as the UK and US. :)

Hmm... maybe Obama is a "socialist" after all, if this is the definition. :evilgrin:

[Hannah Bell]

8. the co-opted left exists all over the world.

[LooseWilly]

9. So it does...

And, somehow, the co-opting seems to usually go over with na'ry a hitch. It's almost enough to make you frustrated enough to start "blaming the victim"...

[KILL THE WISE ONE]

6. and how is this different, and yes i did read your responce