The fact there's a financial crisis hasn't made much difference to Spain's trade unions who have just posted their intention to mount a series of airport strikes starting Easter weekend and finishing on the last weekend in August. Well done guys! You've just shrunk our vacations. Not just for those of us who live in the UK but those in the whole of Europe. But then you don't care cos you work for AENA.
This comes hard on the heels of the air traffic controllers' strike which closed Spanish airports and forced the government to arrest the strikers and bring in the military. This strike has been called because AENA which operate all the airports may be partly (49%) sold off to private contractors - whose shareholders will - naturally - insist on airports being run efficiently. The implication is that they are not at the moment? It seems that currently AENAworkers enjoy priveleges (like the air traffic group do) so the fear is probably that some of these will be lost if they have to be more competitive.
Here then is the crux of the matter. In a time of economic crisis people have to compromise like the Civil Service (functionarios) have had to do over pensions, but everytime a different sector is made to do this there are protests and demonstrations. True workers get deserved sympathy as they have bills to pay, like mortgages, based on their current salary. True Spain has 20% unemployment and it desperately doesn't want to increase that figure. But there is a difference between losing your job and losing certain priveleges. On the other hand Spanish workers for long have had better work contracts than many European countries - in some sectors it is virtually impossible to fire workers.
Businesses however have to make a profit (though perhaps not quite so much!) otherwise they go under - and a lot have. Even the flagship of successful enterprises, RyanAir sounded worried. Its director O'Leary this week stated that he'd had to cancel 300 flights during the last strike and the company had lost revenue paid out in compensation to 57 K passengers. Yesterday in Madrid he provocatively called for a clause to be inserted in all European airport worker contracts which made it illegal to strike. Presumeably so that RyanAir planes would not be grounded.
The strike is supported by three unions and today's meeting with government minister Blanco will be a difficult one given recent public statements by both sides. Proposed Easter dates are only 5 weeks away so the meeting will be a muscle-flexing exercise for both sides.The test will be if the government can come up with some kind of compromise without giving in to union pressure using the strikes to hit Spain's already rocky economy.
Footnote: After two meetings of unions with government it seems that the strikes won't after all take place. There is a god after all though it's not sure whose side he was on.
