ElGato:

In Spain there are some so called "courts" that judge like if they were really that, a court. But they are, for the issue they judge, the highest level of decision in the Administration body.

Of course, may be that a minister could influence them, but if it was public, it would be very negative for the Government, since they are supposed to be independent.

I don't like them, for they are some kind of cheat - People think that this or that matter are really being judged by an independent court, and it is neither of both words.

But, after all, you can always go to Court if you are not satisfied with its answers. The problem is that it may cost a lot of money, since many of the courts you would have to ¿plea? are high-level courts, like National Audience, Supreme Court, or CE courts. Not always, depends on which matter we are speaking.

There is a "Tribunal de Defensa de la Competencia", which was, in its origins, created to protect the public from too powerful mergings, forbidden commercial policies, and so on.

After all, to an aviation company, work is one of the inputs, a cost like it is the price of the plane. If they are to be protected from wrong policies like dumping or from "oligopolistic"(Does this word exist in English?) practices in one of their inputs, why not in the other.

I am a worker, and I think (like Law Experts in Spain use to point out) that workers are the weak part in a work contract, and that they must be protected from abuse (up to a limit, this is a social-capitalist, but a capitalist society, in the end).

But these workers really have such a power, because they cannot be replaced, that the may send the Company to have losses. This has been a losing company for many years, when it was a public company, and now, when it has just become profitable, they are demanding such rises that really endanger the corporate results. And they are the second best paid in absolute terms in Europe, and the best, with difference, if you consider the cost of living.

I have been surfing the Net to give you the data, but I cant find the yearly ones. I think they had profits, but not very relevant in percentege on revenues, thus, an important rise of one of its major costs (which was already in very high level) could send it to Sabena (Belgium) position, Delta, Aerolineas Argentinas, ..., and so many airlines in difficulties may be because of a different concrete reason, but for the same global one: income is lower than expense in the long time. http://www.invertia.com/empresas/empresa.asp?idtel=RV011IBERIA
http://www.invertia.com/noticias/noticia.asp?idnoticia=308422
http://www.invertia.com/empresas/noticias/noticia.asp?idDoc=359217&idtel=RV011IBERIA

Sorry that they are in spanish.

And the quarter results, as you can see, show losses of about 500M$ in profits, growing (the losses) a 36% (also because of fuel cost).

If we are speaking of it typical bussiness (carrying people in planes) it comes to about 700M$, being an 11% worse.

However, they may have (and I think they did) had profits last year, and they could have had this year (if costs did not grow too much), for summer is the moment when they really sell. What do you think will be this years' results? After losing flights and prestige, and, even worse, paying the most expensive workers in Europe.

What is the latest with this pilots strike??? I fly into Barcelona on Sept 4th. Does any one know of specific dates or do they just strike at random? I have a call into my travel agent but no reply yet.

At this moment it is not prepared any strike in September (as far as I know), but that doesn't mean it couldn't be one. If I were you I will confirm it when the date aproaches.

In my last post there were two wrong data, losses were 50M$ (not 500M$), and 70M$ (not 700).
Sorrry, it was an error.

Just wanted to thank the board for this thread, which I saw prior to my trip: I was in a travel agency in Salamanca booking a roundtrip flight between Madrid and Barcelona, and she was all set to give us our Iberia tickets, with the return on TUESDAY, July 3. At which point I said, "But isn't that the next day for the strike?" And she promptly remembered that it was and changed us to AirEuropa. Thanks board, or I might still be sleeping on the floor in the Aeropuerto de Barcelona!