Government declares 'state of alarm' over air trafffic controllers strike

SPAIN (AP) Spain's government has declared an unprecedented "state of alarm" over an air traffic controllers strike that has largely closed the country's air space. Deputy Prime Minister Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba said this means that the controllers are now under orders to go back to work and can be charged with a crime under the military penal code if they refuse. If convicted, they could face jail time. He said most Spanish airports were not up and running Saturday. Written into the Spanish Constitution, a 'state of alarm' also allows the government to take over certain key or strategic functions directly. The controllers would also be put under military command and therefore under military law. In fact, the military already took over the air traffic controllers' posts, though not actual control, for which they are not trained. There have been reports all morning of a trickle back to work. Passengers at the airports are more directly impacted, but the strike is now having an effect on such things as sports schedules, medical emeregencies, etc. But what exactly is it the controllers are asking for?>
According to union spokespeople, the strike is not directly about pay but about perks. They want to have such things as extra hours, time off for asuntos personales (personal affairs) and other such things included in what the law says are the maximum number of hours they must work, 1.670, a figure that was established in April this year after the controllers went on a 'covert' strike then.

Origin of this strike

Apparently this wildcat strike began after the Minister for Economy Elena Salgado said yesterday after the weekly Cabinet meeting, that what are called union hours, or imaginary hours, permissions and other such scheduling items would not be included in those 1.670 hours.

The controllers, who had been on tenterhooks since early Friday morning on the subject of their hours, were called to what their union called a 'permanent assembly' to discuss the minister's statement. As the unions were giving a press conference on their position, the majority of controllers on duty at airports throughout the country, left their posts alleging that they were 'unfit for work', according to AENA the state airport management company, which added that the walkout was massive.

The unions stated, however, that they had not called a strike and that the walkout was a spontaneous reaction 'to a recurring problem about their hours and schedules.'

Sedition and jail

According to the new laws regulating the air traffic control system set up last April as the result of another strike, the controllers could be up against charges of 'crime and sedition' and face jail sentences of up to 6 years.