An emergency meeting of The Spanish government has authorized a “militarization” of Spanish Airport control towers following a massive controllers walk out. The controllers, now under military command face prison if they disobey.

The Royal Decree came into effect at 21.30 CET. By 22.00 CET about The night shift began to turn up at their posts. However, they are refusing to sign on.

A national Bank holiday began today and thousands of holidaymakers are trapped at airports around the country. There is no sympathy for this sector, The ATC workers are considered spoilt and over paid.

Uptdated: 11.00h CET
There has been a long-running battle between the Government and the ATC union, USCA, to reduce the costs of the state-run airport authorities, AENA. Back in 1998, the then Conservative government increased the already impressive ‘perks’ of the ATC workers, which led the situation to be financially unsustainable, making Spanish airport dues the highest in Europe.

In September the Government issue a Royal Decree establish a working-hour limit of 1,670 hours, but the ATC union decided to start their calculations from the 1st of January, including such things as time off sick, time on courses, time sleeping off duty and a long improbable etc. This lead the Government to issue another decree around the 20th of last month stipulating what exactly constituted ‘working hours’ limiting them to ones actually consumed in the control tower.

This decree, together with the news that the Government was selling off around 40% of the AENA to private hands, prompted ATC workers to ‘report sick’ and leave the nation’s ATC necessities unattended.

It is telling that not even the two main Spanish unions, the CCOO and the UGT, back the ATC union, pointing out that they had probably shot themselves in the foot.

Whatever the case, the Spanish public is incensed, especially in these times of financial restraint, and right in the beginning of the longest bank holiday of the year.

Finally, ATC workers who refuse to work could face criminal charges of sedition with up to four years in prison.