Air traffic staff threaten Easter strike
Air traffic controllers on Monday threatened to stage rolling strikes over the Orthodox Easter period later this month ? action that would seriously disrupt air travel ? in protest at the non-payment of more than three months of outstanding wages since December.
Speaking to Skai television on Monday morning, Vassilis Alevizopoulos, the president of the Federation of Civil Aviation Authority Unions (OSYPA), said he had called on Deputy Finance Minister Filippos Sachinidis to ensure that the workers receive the three-and-a-half months in outstanding pay for night shifts.
If authorities fail to satisfy the union?s demands, Alevizopoulos said, workers will stop working night shifts and boycott public holidays and Sundays until the end of the year. Alevizopoulos said that the issue of the outstanding wages of air traffic controllers – who are civil servants – was a longstanding one and said the government owed staff an immediate solution to their problem.
Despite the repercussions of the economic crisis on household budgets, thousands of Greeks have booked flights for domestic or international routes for Orthodox Easter which falls on Sunday April 24 this year.
