Aerolíneas Argentinas airline pilots grouped in the Airline Pilots Association union (APLA, for its Spanish initials) announced that they will begin holding workers’ assemblies starting on August 19, a decision that is expected to cause delays and cancellations in flights all over the country.
Pilots of the state-owned airline said in a communiqué published Friday that they have been negotiating wage increases in line with inflation for months and have not received fair proposals. The measures will start on Monday and will be held intermittently until August 30.
The first assembly will take place in the Aeroparque Internacional Jorge Newbery in Buenos Aires on August 19, from 9:00 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. On August 22, there will be another one set to start at 9:00 p.m. at Ezeiza Airport.
Assemblies will take place in the Córdoba and Mendoza airports from 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. the following week, on August 27. The next day, there will be another one in Ezeiza, starting at 9:00 p.m. The last one is scheduled for August 30 from 6:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. in Aeroparque.
“Our salaries have been degraded not only at the international level but also at the regional level,” the pilots claimed. They added that they had originally decided to carry out a “direct action measure” during the winter recess (July 15 to the 26th). However, the Labor Secretary issued a mandatory conciliation order at the time, halting future strikes for a maximum of twenty days. During that time, both parties had to work on resolving the conflict.
The pilots stated that they decided on the measures set to start on the 19th after receiving what they called “mediocre” salary rise proposals “well below the inflation index.”
“All instances have been exhausted,” they said.
State-owned Aerolíneas Argentinas is the country’s largest airline. It started operations in 1950, under the presidency of Juan Domingo Perón, and was privatized in 1990 during Carlos Menem’s administration. In 2008, then-President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner renationalized the airline.
Current President Javier Milei has spoken about his desire to privatize the flag carrier again and even included it in the “companies subject to privatization” in the original version of his flagship reform law known as the Ley Bases. The opposition, however, managed to exclude that provision and the final bill passed in Congress did not include the company.
In July, the government began removing regulations on the commercial aviation industry.
