Tornado Alley (PROG)

[dickmilde]

"Reagan's firing of the air traffic controllers"

Looks like Spain may well do the same... and they should.

"In February, the PSOE issued a decree cutting controllers’ wages by 40 percent, increasing hours and reducing rest periods. The Wall Street Journal commented at the time, “Don’t tell Mr. Zapatero, but in his drive to ground the union, the Prime Minister may be replaying Ronald Reagan’s epic 1981 showdown with the air traffic controllers, when the Gipper fired 11,000 of them. Madrid earlier this month passed a decree that would allow the government to hire controllers from abroad and open air traffic control to private competition.”
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2010/sep2010/spai-s04.shtml

Even if the 40% wage cut is enacted the controllers would still be making 30 times the national average salary!
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1244156/Spanish-air-traffic-controllers-earn-800-000--replaced-automatic-systems.html

Overpaid? They have a stressful job, but air traffic controllers in Spain can earn up to £800,000 a year - more than 50 times the national average salary (file photo)


And the left calls it "protecting the working class"... I call it raping the economy.