Prospect air traffic controllers support Spanish colleagues in dispute

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Prospect air traffic controllers support Spanish colleagues in dispute

Spanish air traffic controllers will be undertaking partial strikes on 8, 10, 12 and 14 June for four hours at a time. The strikes will be split into two separate two-hour periods, one in the morning from 1000 , the other in the evening commencing at 1800. 

Prospect’s sister union USCA, with whom our ATCOs branch has a memorandum of understanding, has called this strike to protest against the disciplinary sanctions enforced by ENAIRE - The Spanish Air Traffic Control Company (formerly AENA), following the events of December 3rd 2010, when AENA closed Spanish airspace for several hours.  

Following these events ENAIRE instigated court proceedings against its ATCOs who were due to work on the 3rd December 2010.  Across Spain the vast majority of these cases were dismissed by the judges hearing them, however the company subsequently decided to take disciplinary action against individual controllers, including suspension on no pay for a month for 61 controllers in Barcelona, and the firing of another controller in Santiago.  This is despite the fact that these individuals have already been cleared of all charges by a court of law.

Prospect expresses its solidarity with our colleagues in Spain, as they are subjected to outdated and punitive social practices which have no place in modern industrial relations.