Potential tourists beware...

Until a few days ago it looked as if this spring and summer would be great tourism seasons for Spain as a lot of northern Europeans changed their plans of going to Egypt or Tunisia for Easter or summer holidays and decided to book vacations in the Canary Islands or the Mediterranean coast of Spain. Now it could become a nightmare for those tourists if public sector unions realize their threat of going on strike during holidays. These unions want to prevent the central government from privatizing AENA, the body that controls Spanish airports, which would mean an end to public sector privileges for its 12,500 employees and more competition between airports; it would also help the government in its efforts to balance the budget.
In early December of 2010, air traffic controllers went on a strike that left hundreds of thousands stranded on a holiday weekend and that led the government to declare a state of alarm in order to force them back to work and prevent them from striking during the Christmas holidays. Now similar chaos is to be feared if ground personnel at Spanish airports during the holiday season decides not to carry baggage, not to clean restrooms, or not to empty the trash cans. This would be a real pain in the neck for the Spanish economy as tourism is one of the few areas that works reasonably well - especially due to the benign climate, not necessarily to its quality - and that gives - often temporary - employment to a lot of people.