PROPERTY SEARCH
ARCHIVED - More travel disruption ahead as air traffic control strike in Spain continues into April
The work stoppages will affect 16 airports across Spain and the Balearic and Canary Islands
The Usca union has extended the partial strike of workers in the privatised air traffic control towers at airports across Spain to seven days in April, commencing on one of the busiest days of the year for the tourism industry, Easter Sunday.
The strike action began in January over pay and working conditions and affects 16 airports up and down the country.
In April, the industrial action will take place on Thursdays and Sundays, beginning on the 9th. All air traffic control staff on mainland Spain and in the Balearic Islands will down tools between 3pm and 5pm on these days while the strikes in the Canary Islands will run from 7am to 9am.
The strikes affect the airports of A Coruña, Alicante-Elche, Castellón, Cuatro Vientos, El Hierro, Fuerteventura, Ibiza, Jerez, Lanzarote, La Palma, Lleida, Murcia, Sabadell, Seville, Valencia and Vigo.
Last month the Congress of Deputies blocked the Spanish government’s bid to privatise even more air control towers at seven of the largest airports in Spain: Palma de Mallorca, Malaga, Gran Canaria, Tenerife (South and North), Bilbao and Santiago de Compostela.
The union was quick to point out how unhappy staff are since the first batch of privatisations took place, which has “resulted in worse conditions” for its workers, hence the prolonged industrial action.
Sources from Usca have blamed the latest round of strikes on the attitude of the employer, a private company called ‘Saerco’, which they claim is "opposed to reaching any type of agreement, which has hindered the proposals" made for a new collective agreement from the outset.
They have criticized that the system "cannot work based on the efforts of a fatigued workforce and with constant cuts" of rights consolidated in the past.
Image: Enaire
Sign up for the Spanish News Today Editors Roundup Weekly Bulletin and get an email with all the week’s news straight to your inbox
Special offer: Subscribe now for 25% off (36.95 euros for 48 Bulletins)
OR
you can sign up to our FREE weekly roundup!
Read some of our recent bulletins:
25% Discount Special Offer subscription:
36.95€ for 48 Editor’s Weekly News Roundup bulletins!
Please CLICK THE BUTTON to subscribe.
(List price 3 months 12 Bulletins)
Read more stories from around Spain:
Contact Spanish News Today: Editorial 966 260 896 /
Office 968 018 268
