Easter is a popular time for visitors to Spain. It is usually a good time to escape the cold northern climate and catch a bit of sun. It is also a good time for those who want to witness the speculator Semana Santa parades. However visitors may have a miserable journey to Spain this year.
Negotiations between Spanish air traffic controllers and airport operator Aena over new pay and working conditions broke down on Tuesday with neither side willing to give ground.
Spokesmen, Juan Ignacio Lema for Aena and Juan María García Gil of the air traffic controllers union, USCA, both said the talks had reached their limit. Sr Lema said the 'obstructive and negative' attitude of union officials led to the breakdown, adding that the situation could affect air traffic flow over Spain. He said the union was seeking a 40 per cent pay rise, meaning a controller could retire at 52 with a 170,000-euros-a-year pension, which was not acceptable.
Sr García Gil said the government was at fault and it was using the situation for political reasons. He added that nobody was going to score political points off the backs of his members. Although USCA communication secretary Rafael López said there would not be a strike and its members were willing to continue with negotiations and guarantee full services, he warned that if a deal is not reached by April 1, the first day of the holiday period, they will revert to working practices agreed in 2004.
Experts say that Aena wants to reduce huge debt caused in part by air traffic controllers' high wages
1 comment:
I shall miss the villa but am looking forward to visiting other countries now. Perhaps if we had been retired and had more time to spend out there it would have been different but we knew that the first week was always spent catching up on jobs so not much of a holiday! At the moment because John is self employed we only seem to be able to manage two weeks holiday a year.
I will still be able to keep up with whats going on in ther area by reading your blog. So keep up the goo work and you never know we may bump into you end of Feb when we are over to sign at the Notatri (is that how you spell it?).
Jo xx
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