ATC strike in Spain - military takes over ATC duties

TangoWhiskey

TangoWhiskey

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http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/money/2010/12/04/spanish-military-takes-air-traffic-control/


I wonder if they'll get locked out, like Reagan did in August 1981...

Snippet:

Responding to Friday's wildcat strike by controllers that virtually shut down Spain's airspace, Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero's government militarized the air traffic control system.

Air force officers took over management of the control towers at 10 major airports, including those serving Madrid, Barcelona, Seville and the Canary Islands, the Spanish archipelago off the coast of West Africa.

The move, which is authorized under Spain's Air Security Law, makes civilian controllers subject to Defense Ministry supervision and leaves them open to civil and criminal penalties for failing to comply with the military's instructions.


Read more: http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/mo...tary-takes-air-traffic-control/#ixzz176wDf5qp
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Yeah, and I read back in 1981 that as a controller I made well over $100K per year. I made $36K. I think I learned a big lesson then about who controls the media and how "disinformation" can be used to turn people's opinions. Unfortunately, the disinformation just gets passed along. Game, set, match.....the government wins. $500K? Give me a break!
 
my dad was in geneva trying to get home, so he went to madrid because london and paris were weathered closed.
as his connecting flight taxiied out for takeoff, STRIKE.... 2 days of vaycay in madrid... finally got home..
 
Pa28-140 said:
Yeah, and I read back in 1981 that as a controller I made well over $100K per year. I made $36K. I think I learned a big lesson then about who controls the media and how "disinformation" can be used to turn people's opinions. Unfortunately, the disinformation just gets passed along. Game, set, match.....the government wins. $500K? Give me a break!
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No, in this case, they really make this much. They get triple pay for overtime, and an audit found that many of them were making around $400k/year, with a few topping $1M/year.

But it's Spain, so it's not exactly surprising.
 
Okay, I Googled the topic and read some of the same articles, but my "doubt it" meter is still pegged. In addition to the U.S. I worked as a controller in Canada for about 7 years. Our overtime rate started at time and a half and progressed to double time and a half, depending on number of days of work. Triple time, as reported for Spain, isn't too far away. In Canada we routinely worked 3 days of overtime out of every 9 day cycle. International rules don't allow you to work any more than 9 days in a row without a day off. U.S. rules are six days. I guess where why my "doubt meter" is pegged is because there just aren't enough days to come up with the totals that the news media is reporting. Some countries pay much better than the U.S. and have less traffic. But, I feel pretty confident that the figures reported are grossly exaggerated. If not, I need to work on my Spanish and head for Madrid.
 
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