(KUNA) -- Air navigation in, to and from Spain came to a standstill on Saturday as a result of a nationwide strike observed by aviation controllers.The controllers have abandoned their work places collectively demanding sick leaves and declaring that they cannot pursue the work. They are also protesting a government plan to privatize 94 percent of the stakes of the national aviation authority.
Development Minister Jose Blanco warned the striking staffers, at a news conference, that they must resume work or they would be supplemented with personnel of the national defense forces -- a plan that was later carried out.
General paralysis is prevailing across the nation's air facilities although a number of the controllers have turned up at their work offices and places. Up to four million people are forecast to be affected with the paralysis of the Spanish air services.
Earlier, Interior Minister Afredo Robalcaba announced the national military forces had taken charge of the nation's air aviation facilities as a result of the ongoing strike. Robalcaba, in a press statement, said the military forces were deployed at the airports after air controllers declared the strike that initially affected more than 300,000 passengers and citizens throughout the country.
The minister added that Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero had called for an urgent cabinet meeting, expected to be held soon, to declare a state of emergency in case the controllers refused to resume work, warning that the strikers might be prosecuted on charges of committing "a crime against the nation." The defense forces have been assigned to take charge of the aviation sector, in line with certain provisions in the constitution and relevant legislations.
The air navigation controllers have gone on strike to protest work conditions and privatization of the authority running the sector.
The cabinet had decided to take several austerity economic measures intended to cut the burden of public debts, including privatization of 44 percent of the stakes of the aviation company.