Not allowed to strike

I have recently strayed somewhat from my centrel objective of portraying life as a Spanish air traffic controller. Tomorrow there's a general strike in Spain, as indeed in most of Europe. You must bear in mind that in Spain there are six million unemployed from a population of about 45 million. The quality of life is falling dramatically and job security is a dying concept. So there are many reasons to strike, but probably not enough cojones, considering that managers are looking for excuses to reduce their workforce and thereby improve the balance sheet, and compensation for redundancy is also endlessly falling.
What about controllers? Where do we stand on the strike? Two utterly useless questions because we are not allowed to strike at all in practical terms. Minimum services have been decreed above 100 %. Yes it is possible, the people forced to work include controllers who had had personal matters day leave granted. Now they've got no personal matters to deal with, at least tomorrow.
So, to summarise, tomorrow there will probably be about 50% of traffic and 110% of controllers. Why not decree less and show some respect for rights?
I shall write shortly about balancing family and work life. Or not.

Low cost, not always Easy

I have flown with EasyJet dozens of times and the overall experience has been quite satisfactory. It's a no-nonsense company: you arrive on time, check in and fly. Usually without delay. If you want to speed up the process you can print your own boarding pass. Until recently you could pay for speedy boarding and get on the plane before everybody else, now you book your seat. (By the way, row 6 is probably widest at the shoulders)
Nevrtheless, low cost has its glitches too. On my penultimate flight we were all speeded onto the plane so the "speedy" payers lost their privilege. On my last flight we got treated with disrespect by ground staff and were shoved around flock style.
But last Sunday has been so far the worst, and it helps to outline the difference between low cost and full service. My son was going to fly to London from Madrid on Easyjet 5478. Departure 17.10 local. After passport control the passengers were advised that the flight might be cancelled, but in any case was delayed until 22:30. After that a further delay was issued until 23:30, and then again until 00:15.
The first drawback is that there is no available information apart from that set out on the web pages. Of course you can phone, but the info is the same. As usually happens in these cases, the call centre is understaffed: I couldn't get through. When I finally did, in the evening, I heard a readout of their working hours, which had, appropriately, expired until 8 next morning.
We hung on for hours, until 00:00, when the web page suddenly conveyed that the "status" of 5478 was "on time". It flippin' well wasn't! We decided to collect our son, who couldn't be picked up at the other end anyway. Finally, the flight took off at twenty four to two, local.
I have filed a complaint and asked for compensation. As could be expected EasyJet states that the delay is no fault of theirs, citing a portuguese strike, a handling staff strike and a flow regulation from Spain. I have checked the data and the longest other delay that day was under an hour. A crew rotation was needed after excessive duty hours. Should that affect my rights?
I believe that all the mishaps, crew shortage, information staff shortage, webmaster deficiency and others are all accountable to EasyJet. I insist that they are quite good at what they do, but when they fail, they should pay the price.
I'll keep you posted if Easyjet complies with their duty and pays back the cost of the ticket my son finally needed to fly on a later date.
So far, the Jet company is taking this refund very easy. Thanks for reading.

Briefening the briefing

Finally, years after the requirement had been enshrined in European regulations, Aena has introduced briefing in the workplace. We are expected to arrive 5 minutes prior to our watch, to share 30 computers between almost 90 controllers with different validations and sectors, and finish in time for the handover.
The info conveyed includes previously forsaken training and cannot be read in less than an hour.
Of course, the extra time has not been included in the timetable, what did you expect? We're broke.
This is Aena, squaring the circle.