AENA workers call strikes over main summer travel periods

AENA workers, represented by Union General de Trabajadores, Comisiones Obreras and Union Sindical Obrero, called strikes on a series of key Easter and summer travel dates to protest Spanish government plans to partially privatise the company, which unions believe will lead to mass redundancies (Dow Jones/Bloomberg, 07-Mar-2011). AENA has urged the workers to return to negotiations, with chairman Juan Ignacio Lema saying that a strike would be "damaging for the entire Spanish economy", which is heavily dependent on summer tourism. Unions have called 11,500 workers, not including air traffic controllers, to go on strike for 22 days between 20-Apr and 31-Aug-2011, including stoppages during the Easter holiday week in April, five days in May, three days in June, six days in July and three days in August. Air traffic controllers are represented by a different union and last month agreed to a new wage deal with the government