This is turning into a bit of a blogging about strikes day for me (see earlier BA post), but this one was too good to pass up. Spanish pilots union SEPLA has announced that its members at Spanair will go on strike for half an hour in early June. Yes that's right, half an hour.
Using my rusty Spanish, I've managed to deduce from SEPLA's website that pilots at Spanair will strike for 30 minutes (9am until 9.30am) on Monday 7 June to protest the alleged release to the media of details of conversations held between Spanair pilots before the airline's fatal Boeing MD-82 crash in August 2008.
Let me say right off the bat that I am in no way making light of the seriousness of the union's reasons for announcing this action, but I couldn't help contrasting this planned strike with the one currently going on at British Airways.
Unite is in the throws of staging three five-day walkouts over planned changes to pay and working conditions. SEPLA, meanwhile, says it is "conscious of the difficult situation that airlines are in at the moment" and doesn't want to inconvenience passengers, hence the planned strike only lasting for half an hour.
Is there something Unite could learn from this? Is it possible to make a point by just striking for long enough to have a cup of tea, rather than inflicting millions of pounds worth of damage on your employer and throwing the plans of the travelling public into disarray? Just a bit of food for thought.
on May 24, 2010 6:34 PM | Reply
What will happen to flight which are in the air at that time?
on May 25, 2010 9:50 AM | Reply
That's a very good point, Paul, and one I should have thought of when writing the blog! It would be a bit unnerving if the pilot came on the tannoy and said: "Ladies and gentlemen, we're just going on strike for half an hour. No need to worry, these things can fly themselves."