» Minimum services of 70% for the air controllers’ strike next week

The Ministry of Development (Fomento) has confirmed the Spanish air traffic controllers’ strike and has established the minimum services in 70% of the scheduled staff for those days. The controllers called a strike to protest the decision to sanction 61 controllers over a strike which ended with the total closure of Spanish air space in 2010. Being unable to reach an agreement with the main controllers’ union (USCA), the Government published a press release on both enaire.es and fomento.es to define the minimum services. This is the translation from Spanish:

<<Development fixes the minimum services for the strike called by ENAIRE’s air traffic controllers.
Madrid, June 3 2015 (Ministry of Development)

The Ministry of Development has fixed the minimum services for the strike called by ENAIRE’s air traffic controllers on 8, 10, 12 and 14 of June. The walkouts are scheduled from 10:00 to 12:00 and from 18:00 to 20:00 [LT].

This call affects the group of air traffic controllers from ENAIRE.

The target of the minimum services is to reconcile the right to strike with the general interest of the people and, in particular, their mobility needs. All this must be done while ensuring the safety of operations, in which the controllers play a key role.

Therefore, the amount of controllers which have been considered necessary to cover the minimum services represent, approximately, 70% of the staff which had been scheduled during the strike.

Minimum services can be checked at www.fomento.es>>

From the Ministry’s web site, an additional pdf file can be downloaded. It is a 12 page long document. The first 8 pages of the document explain that the strike has been called, that an agreement could not be found and why Development is responsible for fixing the minimum services. It also specifies the criteria used to establish those minimum services at the main Spanish airports. Finally, the last 4 pages contain a table for each day of the strike. Those tables show the staff which had been originally scheduled for those days and the staff which is expected as minimum services in each case.

Photo: Madrid’s skyscrapers from the airport and the Terminal 4 ATC tower. Flickr – Armando G Alonso.