The main air controllers’ union, USCA, has extended the strike that they had called four more days i.e. 11, 12, 25 and 26 of July. Hence, due to Enaire’s unwillingness to reach an agreement, new walkouts have been scheduled. USCA demands the reinstatement of the controller dismissed in Santiago de Compostela as well as the filing of the sanctions which were given to 61 controllers in Barcelona. All of this comes as a consequence of the coordinated wildcat strike performed by the Spanish air controllers in 2010.
On Monday, USCA anounced on their web site that the stops have been scheduled as follows: On July 11 and 25, from 10:00 to 13:00 LT and on July 12 and 26, from 17:00 to 20:00 LT.
In USCA’s opinion, it is unacceptable that Enaire refuses to find a solution for the controller who was dismissed despite “the courts having said that their arguments for that were false”. Likewise, they don’t understand why Enaire keeps the 61 sanctioning files after “the courts said those controllers didn’t have responsibility in the events”. Also, in this announcement, USCA said they are still willing to resume talks in the next days.
Furthermore, USCA insisted on claiming that the minimum services fixed by the Government go against their right to strike. For this reason, they challenged the establishment of the minimum services before the National High Court. For further information about this, USCA published their Analysis of four days of strike, protesting penalties to 61 controllers at Barcelona ACC.
Photo: Terminal 1 of Barcelona-El Prat Airport, where Iberia is based. Photo by Iberia Airlines – Flickr.
