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04 Dec 2010 20:59

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U.S.: Ronald Reagan once stopped an air traffic controller crisis – with pink slips

  • 2010 In Spain, air traffic controllers forced the country’s military to get involved to stop a strike. The workers are upset because their average wages are getting cut – from roughly $463,000 per year to $263,000 per year.
  • 1981 In a similar strike involving air traffic controllers in the U.S., Ronald Reagan called a union’s bluff and fired nearly 12,000 striking air traffic controllers, which led to smaller staffs that did work that was just as good. source

04 Dec 2010 12:49

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World: “Air-traffic controller” now a form of slave labor in Spain

  • I cannot talk to you properly now. There are civil guards here, with pistols. If we don’t start work now, we will be arrested.
  • A Spanish air-traffic controller talking to the Daily Telegraph • Describing how he’s literally been forced to go to work by the Spanish military nearly a day after an air-traffic controller walkout sent Spanish airspace into chaos. Spain’s way of dealing with this crisis-inducing problem? They handed control of controlling the airspace to the military, who forced the striking workers to go back to their jobs, by force. So technically, this air traffic controller is working slave labor right now, eh? Classy. That’s one way to solve a crisis. source

03 Mar 2010 20:26

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U.S.: Stupid parent suspended for letting stupid kid direct air traffic

  • The sound of a pending pink slip “World’s Greatest Dad” may have seemed like the proper title for the father of this kid who directed traffic at JFK Airport one day, but instead it’s “World’s Biggest Idiot.” An airport supervisor and an air traffic controller (i.e. the boss and his idiot worker) were suspended as a result of this incident, which managed to take away from the luster of Sully’s pending retirement. Miracle on the Hudson? More like miracle nobody died thanks to this kid. source