La Gomera weatherman working like a slave

I had drawn the attention to this story in a Canary Islands weather forum recently, but here's how IslandConnections.eu reports the poor working conditions at La Gomera's airport weather station:

La Gomera airport lounge

“Slave” weatherman

The plight of the only person currently manning the Met Office’s weather station at La Gomera airport has been highlighted by a local trade union, which says he is being forced to work like a slave due the lack of personnel.

08.01.2015 - Union CSIF says that the long-term sick leave of the head of station and the departure of another Met Office employee at the tiny airport means that the only remaining member of staff has been working 21 days in a row, on shifts of 11 hours, to make sure weather data are collected and entered into the system.  The union demanded a meeting with the head of the Spanish Met Office recently to discuss the working conditions, which are in breach of working time regulations.  It has also written formal complaints to various Government departments at regional and national level. 

Refuelling facilities for La Gomera airport demanded

A Binter Airlines commuter flight approaching La Gomera's small but beautiful airport GMZ to land 

The parliament of the Canary Islands has adopted a resolution calling for the installation of refuelling facilities at La Gomera's airport (GMZ) last Thursday. It was stated by the leader of the Canarian nationalist group in the parliament that La Gomera's citizens deserve to be treated like the rest of the Spanish population and that the Spanish airport authority AENA left the airport without a tanker to supply fuel and that there wasn't even lubricating oil for emergencies. He also said that several Spanish airports with less air traffic than La Gomera had all these essential basic services at their disposal. They weren't economically viable but essential and vital in case of emergencies, he concluded.

The resolution was adopted with the support of several parties and as one deputy put it ''because above all it stands to reason''
I think he's right. The shooting of the upcoming movie In the Heart of the Sea by Ron Howard involved several days of shooting from a special camera helicopter which needed numerous refuelling trips. Even though many scenes were being filmed in the sea just a very short distance below La Gomera's airport, the helicopter had to fly further away to refuel from a tanker truck that had been brought especially from Tenerife, meanwhile we were refuelling with smoothies and resetting the scene.
A couple of years ago a route from London Gatwick directly to La Gomera was to be opened and tickets could be pre-ordered online - until they discovered they couldn't refuel at the destination.

Canary Islands to get firefighting plane this summer

A water-bomber in action 2012

A fire-fighting plane for the Canary Islands will be permanently stationed at La Gomera's small Playa de Santiago airport for the duration of the dry summer season. The airport is very quiet with only a couple of commuter flight to Tenerife and back daily. All the islands with important forests are reached very quickly from there and the forested national park of La Gomera which suffered a devastating fire in 2012 is close by. There is also an ample supply of water at the island's airport allowing a rapid response to any fire. The amphibious water-bomber is to be on stand-by there from the first of July until the end of October.