December 8, 2010
Air Controllers’ Strike May Be Watershed Moment in Spain
By RAPHAEL MINDER
MADRID — When Spanish air traffic controllers conducted a wildcat strike over the weekend that shut down airports across the country, they were hoping to force the government to back down from its plans to cut their pay, increase their regular working hours and put Spain’s two largest airports under private management.
Instead, Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero declared a state of alarm and forced the controllers back to work under military authority, and the controllers’ union ended up apologizing for its actions. In a country with a strong labor movement that is traditionally quite tolerant of wildcat strikes, the confrontation has been hailed as a potential watershed event along the lines of President Ronald Reagan’s mass firing of American air traffic controllers in 1981.
Whatever the historical fallout, it was immediately clear that the controllers’ timing was poor. <span style="font-weight: bold">With Spain reeling under 20 percent unemployment and facing further austerity measures in response to the European debt crisis, very few Spaniards could gin up much sympathy for workers who were making, on average, $463,000 a year, with some making as much as $1.29 million.
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The controllers’ supporters noted that their counterparts throughout the world tend to earn high salaries. German controllers, for example, earn an average of about $200,000 a year, British controllers around $160,000. In the United States, the average annual salary, excluding overtime, was $109,218 in March 2009.
But even granting that, critics said, Spanish air traffic controllers are in a league of their own.
The fancy salaries stem from a collective-bargaining agreement struck in 1999, when regular working hours were strictly limited and any additional shifts richly rewarded.
At the same time, the number of controllers has been held steady at about 2,400, even as the workload rose sharply as Spain expanded its network of airports during a decade-long construction boom. In addition, around 500 controllers took early retirement or went on extended sick leave, reducing the work force to only 1,900.
By comparison, neighboring France has about 4,000 controllers, monitoring less of the European airspace than their Spanish counterparts, who are also responsible for the section of the Atlantic that lies between mainland Spain and the Canary Islands.
Controllers lay blame for the low staffing levels on Aena, the state-controlled airport management authority.
“It has worked out cheaper for Aena to pay excess hours than to hire more people and also pay for two years of expensive training,” said Daniel Zamit, a controller and former spokesman for the union. “Those who earn a lot also work a lot, and if somebody can earn almost one million euros, it’s not a sign of abuse but of an excessive and potentially dangerous work regime.”
Aena, in an e-mailed response to questions, insisted that “the problem is not lack of staff but low productivity.” Aena cited a study from Eurocontrol, the air traffic agency, showing that controllers’ work productivity across other European nations rose 12.5 percent between 2003 and 2007, while falling 1 percent in the same period in Spain.
Critics of Spain’s powerful unions say the difference between Spanish controllers and their counterparts elsewhere reflects a larger disparity in the power of organized labor, one that some labor experts say may be shifting after this weekend’s events.
“This should be an opportunity for a major overhaul that goes well beyond the dispute with controllers,” said Sandalio Gómez, professor of labor relations at the IESE business school in Madrid. “Spain has had powerful unions, rights that get accumulated under successive collective agreements and governments that have been weak when threatened with strike.”
In this instance, a previously beleaguered Mr. Zapatero seems to have won widespread public support for his tough response. When he appears before Parliament on Thursday to defend his decision to declare a state of alarm, he is not expected to face the fierce criticism that such a move would have engendered in years past.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/09/world/europe/09spain.html?hpw
Air Controllers’ Strike May Be Watershed Moment in Spain
By RAPHAEL MINDER
MADRID — When Spanish air traffic controllers conducted a wildcat strike over the weekend that shut down airports across the country, they were hoping to force the government to back down from its plans to cut their pay, increase their regular working hours and put Spain’s two largest airports under private management.
Instead, Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero declared a state of alarm and forced the controllers back to work under military authority, and the controllers’ union ended up apologizing for its actions. In a country with a strong labor movement that is traditionally quite tolerant of wildcat strikes, the confrontation has been hailed as a potential watershed event along the lines of President Ronald Reagan’s mass firing of American air traffic controllers in 1981.
Whatever the historical fallout, it was immediately clear that the controllers’ timing was poor. <span style="font-weight: bold">With Spain reeling under 20 percent unemployment and facing further austerity measures in response to the European debt crisis, very few Spaniards could gin up much sympathy for workers who were making, on average, $463,000 a year, with some making as much as $1.29 million.
</span>
The controllers’ supporters noted that their counterparts throughout the world tend to earn high salaries. German controllers, for example, earn an average of about $200,000 a year, British controllers around $160,000. In the United States, the average annual salary, excluding overtime, was $109,218 in March 2009.
But even granting that, critics said, Spanish air traffic controllers are in a league of their own.
The fancy salaries stem from a collective-bargaining agreement struck in 1999, when regular working hours were strictly limited and any additional shifts richly rewarded.
At the same time, the number of controllers has been held steady at about 2,400, even as the workload rose sharply as Spain expanded its network of airports during a decade-long construction boom. In addition, around 500 controllers took early retirement or went on extended sick leave, reducing the work force to only 1,900.
By comparison, neighboring France has about 4,000 controllers, monitoring less of the European airspace than their Spanish counterparts, who are also responsible for the section of the Atlantic that lies between mainland Spain and the Canary Islands.
Controllers lay blame for the low staffing levels on Aena, the state-controlled airport management authority.
“It has worked out cheaper for Aena to pay excess hours than to hire more people and also pay for two years of expensive training,” said Daniel Zamit, a controller and former spokesman for the union. “Those who earn a lot also work a lot, and if somebody can earn almost one million euros, it’s not a sign of abuse but of an excessive and potentially dangerous work regime.”
Aena, in an e-mailed response to questions, insisted that “the problem is not lack of staff but low productivity.” Aena cited a study from Eurocontrol, the air traffic agency, showing that controllers’ work productivity across other European nations rose 12.5 percent between 2003 and 2007, while falling 1 percent in the same period in Spain.
Critics of Spain’s powerful unions say the difference between Spanish controllers and their counterparts elsewhere reflects a larger disparity in the power of organized labor, one that some labor experts say may be shifting after this weekend’s events.
“This should be an opportunity for a major overhaul that goes well beyond the dispute with controllers,” said Sandalio Gómez, professor of labor relations at the IESE business school in Madrid. “Spain has had powerful unions, rights that get accumulated under successive collective agreements and governments that have been weak when threatened with strike.”
In this instance, a previously beleaguered Mr. Zapatero seems to have won widespread public support for his tough response. When he appears before Parliament on Thursday to defend his decision to declare a state of alarm, he is not expected to face the fierce criticism that such a move would have engendered in years past.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/09/world/europe/09spain.html?hpw
