Spain ends air strike by using military law

MADRID, Spain – Spain’s government halted an air traffic control strike Saturday by imposing an emergency decree to threaten the disgruntled employees with prison terms under military law. Flights resumed, but hundreds of thousands of travelers remained stranded at airports.
By Saturday evening the decree, which had never been used before, prompted 283 of the 295 controllers scheduled to report for duty to do so, Spain’s civil aviation agency AENA said, and flights were resuming at an increasing pace.
Spanish air space reopened after being closed with the start of the wildcat strike Friday evening over a work scheduling dispute, but the government warned that it could be up to two days before airports return fully to normal at one of Europe’s top tourism destinations.
All over the country, people marooned at airports at the start of a long holiday weekend told stories of being herded around like cattle in search of information, sleeping on chairs or floors, or resting on check-in weighing scales or propped up against their luggage.
“It’s total chaos,” said Spaniard Rocio Garcia, who had hoped to spend the weekend in Paris. “There are two people attending a line of some 500 people.”
AENA said an estimated 600,000 people missed flights Friday or Saturday because of the strike.
Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero placed the country’s 2,000-odd air traffic controllers under military authority in a “state of alarm” order, meaning strikers who refused to resume guiding aircraft in and out of airports faced the threat of jail terms under the military penal code.
Zapatero acted under a constitutional clause which had never been used before and also is reserved for national emergencies.